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

Read Article

Cyborg Spock

April 4th, 2011 in Category: Donna Haraway, Star Trek, The Original Series

Spock of "Star Trek: The Original Series" is the most perfect example of a cyborg in the sense described by Donna Haraway in her seminal essay. But for more than 40 years, no scholar has ever mentioned this. Why?
Read Article

Baudrillard und Trek-nologie

November 27th, 2010 in Category: Jean Baudrillard, Star Trek

Beginnen wir mit dem Ende der sechziger Jahre in New York, dem Ort meiner Kindheit. Als guter Jude sollte ich eine jüdische Erziehung bekommen. Stattdessen liebte ich Star Trek. Alles, was ich weiß, habe ich von Star Trek gelernt.
Read Article

Star Trek: How the New Comes into the World

November 7th, 2010 in Category: Star Trek

Most scientists and academics who write about Star Trek claim to be fans and lovers of the series. But their customary methodologies deny to Star Trek its true originality as the creator of a reality-shaping "science fiction" that formatively influences culture, ideas, technologies, and even "hard sciences" like physics.
Read Article

Star Trek: 20 Basic Principles

November 7th, 2010 in Category: Science Fiction Studies, Star Trek

Radical Uncertainty, The Vital Illusion, The Surprise of Technology, Recognition of Otherness, Boundaries of the Human, Symbolic Exchange, Non-Signifying Language, The Duel / Dual Relationship, Ambivalence Towards Hypermodern Science, The Butterfly Effect, Ambivalence Towards Virtual Reality...
Read Article

“Amok Time”

October 22nd, 2010 in Category: Cyborg Spock, The Original Series

"T'Pring, parted from me and never parted, never and always, touching and touched, we meet at the appointed place." "Spock, parted from me and never parted, never and always, touching and touched, I await you." "What thee are about to see comes down from the Time of the Beginning, without change." says T'Pau.
Read Article

Baudrillard and Trek-nology (Or Everything I Know I Learned From Watching Star Trek and Reading Jean Baudrillard)

October 10th, 2010 in Category: Jean Baudrillard, Star Trek

It was my childhood in New York in the late 1960s. As a good Jew, I was supposed to acquire a Jewish education. But instead I loved Star Trek. Everything I know I learned from watching Star Trek.
Read Article

Star Trek: Technologies of Disappearance, by Alan N. Shapiro

July 29th, 2010 in Category: Book Descriptions, Media Studies, Science & Technology, Science Fiction Studies, Star Trek

In his lengthy review-essay of "Star Trek: Technologies of Disappearance" in "Science Fiction Studies", coeditor Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr. remarks: "Shapiro’s study of Star Trek is one of the most original works of sf-theory since Scott Bukatman’s 'Terminal Identity' (1993)."
Read Article

Alan N. Shapiro interviewed by Gerry Ryan

July 23rd, 2010 in Category: Star Trek, Teleportation

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

“The Raven”

July 22nd, 2010 in Category: American Literature, Seven of Nine

Seven of Nine is an apprentice member of Voyager's crew who has "brought back" precise skills and efficiency from her long experience with the Borg. But she is a poor consumer. She does not know how to relax or enjoy, to participate in activities which are not directly productive.
Read Article

Data and Baudrillard, by Franco La Polla

June 25th, 2010 in Category: Android Data, Androids & Artificial Life, Jean Baudrillard, Star Trek, The Next Generation

This is a translation of one chapter of Franco La Polla’s book "Star Trek: Foto di Gruppo con Astronave." Almost all of the books on Star Trek were written in a relatively thoughtless manner, put together in haste to make money. In contrast to them, La Polla’s books on Star Trek are rare precious gems of high intelligence.
Read Article

Bayerischer Rundfunk programme on Alan N. Shapiro

June 20th, 2010 in Category: Android Data, Androids & Artificial Life, Baseball, Car of the Future, Casino Gambling, Dance Theory, Hans-Peter Dürr, Humanities Informatics, Rethinking Science, Star Trek

On June 13, 2010, Bayerischer Rundfunk broadcast a 38-minute programme (mostly in German) about the ideas and projects of Alan N. Shapiro. The show was produced by Florian Fricke. It includes a segment on the social choreography ideas and practice of Alan's close friend Steve Valk.
Read Article

“Trials and Tribble-ations”

May 31st, 2010 in Category: Deep Space Nine

In the Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations", Commander Benjamin Sisko, Science Officer Jadzia Dax, Constable Odo, Lt. Worf, Chief Miles O'Brien, and Dr. Julian Bashir of the starship Defiant time travel via the Bajoran Orb of Time back to the twenty-third century.
Read Article

Star Trek: How the New Comes Into the World

April 15th, 2010 in Category: Star Trek

Most scientists and academics who write about Star Trek claim to be fans of the series. But their customary methodologies function to deny to Star Trek its true originality as the creator of a reality-shaping science fiction that formatively influences culture, ideas, technologies, and even hard sciences like physics.
Read Article

The Star Trekking of Physics

April 15th, 2010 in Category: Star Trek, Teleportation

In spite of the proliferation of exhilarated technoculture and its multidisciplinary, wired self-image, there remain some straightlaced, uncool tendencies within the techno-elite which boil over at the thought of all this openness to the humanities and the soft.
Read Article

Captain Kirk Was Never the Original

April 15th, 2010 in Category: Captain Kirk, Captain Pike, Real/Virtual Reality, Star Trek

In its prevalent forms, the cottage consumer industry of Star Trek is a classic virtuality of identification where the viewers' senses of self, otherness, and reality are blurred by the contemplation of iconic spectacles.
Older Entries