Alan N. Shapiro, Technologist and Futurist

Blog and text archive about media theory, science fiction theory, future design, social choreography, Computer Science 2.0, new media art, robots and androids, Star Trek, The Prisoner, Jean Baudrillard, Albert Camus, Michel Foucault, and Marshall McLuhan

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Julian, California: The Museum of Reality

July 1st, 2011 in Category: New American Studies

After seeing one town after the next that looks the same, after seeing all of this cloned hyper-non-reality, it was good to finally arrive in Julian, California, where the local HISTORICAL SOCIETY has preserved everything just as it was exactly 117 years ago.
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Where am I? In The Village

June 18th, 2011 in Category: New American Studies, The Prisoner

In Phoenix, we ate dinner at an instance of The Village Inn restaurant chain. The interior décor, the atmosphere, and the "language semiotics" (the signs, the typography) of The Village Inn reminded me of one of my favorite TV shows of all time: "The Prisoner", starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan.
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More Baseball Cactus League Photos

June 17th, 2011 in Category: Baseball

It don't matter if you're black or white. Thanks to the courage of Jackie Robinson.
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Cactus League Baseball: San Francisco Giants vs. Oakland Athletics

June 10th, 2011 in Category: Baseball

It was early March on planet Earth. In any of the other places where I have hung out during my apparently long yet in fact rather brief life so far as coder and Richard Daystrom wannabe – Frankfurt, Berlin, New York, Boston, Ithaca, Bologna, Zurich – it would be freezing cold in the middle of winter.
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From Las Vegas (NV) to the Cactus League (AZ)

May 20th, 2011 in Category: New American Studies, Photography

Leaving Las Vegas... Driving through the northern Arizona desert... To the Cactus League... In the Shadow of Jean Baudrillard and America... To arrive at nighttime March baseball in southern Arizona!
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Multimedia Real-Time Live In-Play Sports Gambling

April 21st, 2011 in Category: Information Society, Sports Gambling

Sports gambling at the MGM Grand Casino-Hotel, Las Vegas
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Whiskey Pete’s Casino at the California/Nevada Border

March 24th, 2011 in Category: Casino Gambling, Jean Baudrillard

From Dublin, Ireland I traveled on to New York City, then to southern California. The Baudrillard-America trip had begun. Moments after entering Nevada by car, we encountered Whiskey Pete's casino. Here an important Baudrillard conference had taken place in 1996.
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Today is a Sacred Day

January 23rd, 2011 in Category: American Football

One of the most inspiring days of my life was January 12, 1969. Super Bowl III. My brother and I watched the game on a small black-and-white TV. We saw the Jets, who were 19 point underdogs, beat the mighty Baltimore Colts. David slew Goliath. It was possible for the most unbelievable of dreams to come true.
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New York Yankees Baseball (story)

October 25th, 2010 in Category: Baseball, Creative Writing

"Todd and I had had a baseball Jones for months. When game day arrived we jumped into Todd's Chevy and tooled into town for the Yankee game on Saturday night. We were psyched. On the way we were shooting the breeze about the Yankee game the night before, which we had watched at Todd's house on the tube."
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Jean Baudrillard and America

October 16th, 2010 in Category: Jean Baudrillard, New American Studies

Baudrillard’s "America" is an important and misunderstood book – a milestone work of social commentary about the USA by a French author, in the same tradition as Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America." Baudrillard continues Tocqueville's inquiry, asking many of the same essential questions 150 years later.
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My Hometown is Roslyn, Long Island, New York

October 15th, 2010 in Category: New American Studies

Sometime around 1980, I sat inside my hometown library in the "haute bourgeoise" town of Roslyn and read all the books they had about the student-worker near-revolution in May-June 1968 in France: books like Alain Touraine's "The Movement of May" and Alfred Willener's "The Action-Image of Society."
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Play, Don’t Work at Bayville Adventure Park

October 14th, 2010 in Category: New American Studies

Driving Game, NBA Hoops BONUS, WHEEL A WIN, BASKET FORTUNE, SKEE BALL - TOWER OF POWER, The Jewelry Box, MONOPOLY - coin game, BASKETBALL - mini dunxx, PHAROAH'S TREASURE, JUMPIN' JACKPOT, Pirate's Adventure, MAD WAVE MOTION THEATER, THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD by SEGA
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After Ebbets Field and Shea Stadium: CitiField

October 14th, 2010 in Category: Baseball, New American Studies

I went to my first two games at CitiField in September 2010. The Mets won both games, beating up on a minor league team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was part of a four-game sweep.
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Beginner’s Luck (a Casino Gambling story)

August 31st, 2010 in Category: Casino Gambling, Creative Writing, Photography

There was a famous and elegant casino at the Venice Lido called the Casinò Municipale di Venezia. My friends knew about the casino but had never been inside. To my surprise, Tony expressed his belief that I was destined to win a lot of money at blackjack. He announced that he intended to "stake me" money to play.
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Around the Town (a Sports Gambling story), part 4 of 4

August 21st, 2010 in Category: American Slang, Language, New American Studies

MOE: If your team this week is the Cowboys, then you’re leaving yourself wide open for it. Don’t worry, Bill. The Niners won’t run it up too bad on the ‘Boys this time. But expect a thrashing!
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