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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New Book Published by Geert Lovink’s Institute of Network Cultures

April 30th, 2011 in Category: Wikipedia

The essays, interviews and artworks brought together in this reader form part of the overarching Critical Point of View research initiative, which began with a conference in Bangalore (January 2010), followed by events in Amsterdam (March 2010) and Leipzig (September 2010).
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Diary of a Young Wikipedian

February 5th, 2011 in Category: Wikipedia

An excerpt from my piece entitled “Diary of a Young Wikipedian,” which will be published in its entirety in the book publication of the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam.
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A Critique of the Idea of Neutral Language, by Marc Silver

May 26th, 2010 in Category: Chaim Perelman, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, Language, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Sigmund Freud, Wikipedia

There has been intense scrutiny brought to bear upon the ways in which various disciplines deploy rhetorical devices to “argue their case,” as well as to consolidate their identities and maintain them intact. Marc Silver builds his argument upon such topical foundations, but also shifts the ground in new and original ways.
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Interview about Wikipedia

April 15th, 2010 in Category: Wikipedia

I studied European Intellectual History with Dominick LaCapra at Cornell University, and I am interested in ambitious systems of knowledge classification in the West starting from the French Encyclopédistes in the 18th century and scientific positivism in the 19th century.
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Wikipedia and Libraries

April 13th, 2010 in Category: Library of the Future, Wikipedia

Alan N. Shapiro (together with Patrick Lichty and Father Roderick) interviewed by Erik Boekesteijn on Wikipedia and libraries, on vimeo show "This Week in Libraries."
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Gustave Flaubert Laughs at Wikipedia

April 13th, 2010 in Category: French Literature, Wikipedia

In novels like "Sentimental Education" and "Bouvard and Pécuchet", and in his comic inventory of clichés and repeated ideas, Dictionnaire des Idées Reçues, Gustave Flaubert made fun of 18th and 19th century attempts to catalogue, classify, list, and record all of scientific and historical knowledge.