Alan N. Shapiro, Hypermodernism, Hyperreality, Posthumanism

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Alan N. Shapiro interviewed by Gerry Ryan

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Alan N. Shapiro interviewed by Gerry Ryan about Star Trek

I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Gerry Ryan on April 30, 2010, Ireland’s premier radio and television broadcaster and interviewer.

Gerry was a great communicator.

Gerry was a huge Star Trek fan.

On June 1, 2005, I was interviewed for 45 minutes by Gerry on the Gerry Ryan Show – Ireland’s most popular FM radio programme – about my book Star Trek: Technologies of Disappearance (Berlin: AVINUS Press, 2004).

I think that this interview provides strong evidence that Gerry was a serious intellectual who cared deeply about the future of humanity.

Gerry Ryan: Many of us, especially the Star Trek fans listening this morning, will have dreamt of the day that all of the technologies that we’ve seen and witnessed on the programme in its many incarnations, Star Trek, would one day become reality. Interstellar space travel, that would mean that you’d get to work in seconds, in a different part of the galaxy possibly. No more time wasted in rush-hour traffic. If you got bored with your life, you could do a bit of time travel. And we’d all be talking Klingon whenever we needed to. And my next guest knows more about Star Trek than most. He admits that his knowledge borders on the pathological. His name is Alan Shapiro. And he joins us now in our Limerick studio. Alan, good morning, you’re very welcome.

Alan N. Shapiro: Hi, how are you.

GR: Very good. I’m very excited to talk to you. Because you’re not only a Star Trek fan, but you’re also somebody who’s taken a very keen practical and scientific interest in the technologies that have been displayed on Gene Roddenberry’s child known in its various incarnations as Star Trek. Of course, Roddenberry himself is now floating around in molecular dust in space, isn’t he? …

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