Alan N. Shapiro, Visiting Professor in Transdisciplinary Design, Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen, Germany

Blog and project archive about transdisciplinary design, media theory and creative coding

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Alan N. Shapiro racconta “Star Trek” (RAI4 Italian TV interview)

April 10th, 2017 in the categories: Jean Baudrillard, Paul Virilio, Star Trek

Poliedrico studioso di tecnologia, fantascienza, media e filosofia contemporanea, americano di nascita ed europeo d’adozione, Alan N. Shapiro spiega l’importanza, i significati e il successo della saga di Gene Roddenberry, partendo dal suo innovativo e celeberrimo saggio Star Trek: Tecnologie della sparizione.
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Star Trek: Technologien des Verschwindens, von Alan N. Shapiro

June 19th, 2015 in the categories: Star Trek

Star Trek is die verbreiteste "Ikone" der technologischen Kultur. Zu den größten Fans gehören Physiker, Ingenieure, Informatiker, Grafikkünstler und Medienschaffende. Doch die ursprüngliche Kreativät von Star Trek wird von der Star Trek-Industrie neutralisiert.
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Baudrillard und Trek-nologie, von Alan N. Shapiro

November 27th, 2010 in the categories: 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.
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Star Trek: How the New Comes into the World

November 7th, 2010 in the categories: 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.
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Star Trek: 20 Basic Principles

November 7th, 2010 in the categories: 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...
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Baudrillard and Trek-nology (Or Everything I Know I Learned From Watching Star Trek and Reading Jean Baudrillard), by Alan N. Shapiro

October 10th, 2010 in the categories: 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.
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Star Trek: Technologies of Disappearance, by Alan N. Shapiro

July 29th, 2010 in the categories: 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)."
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Alan N. Shapiro interviewed by Gerry Ryan

July 23rd, 2010 in the categories: 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."
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Data and Baudrillard, by Franco La Polla

June 25th, 2010 in the categories: 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.
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Star Trek: How the New Comes Into the World

April 15th, 2010 in the categories: 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.
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The Star Trekking of Physics, by Alan N. Shapiro

April 15th, 2010 in the categories: 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.
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Captain Kirk Was Never the Original, by Alan N. Shapiro

April 15th, 2010 in the categories: 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.
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The Klingon Language

April 14th, 2010 in the categories: Language, Star Trek

At the same time that many of the world's languages are either disappearing or imploding into deeper uncertainty and complexity, there is one new language which is currently experiencing rapid exponential growth in its number of speakers, and is the object of widespread fascination: the Klingon Language.
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I consider Star Trek to be a great text of Western Civilization

April 13th, 2010 in the categories: Star Trek

The philosopher and computer expert Alan N. Shapiro explains his ideal for a future as an "employer": "I don’t create workplaces; I create playing fields," said Shapiro.
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Star Trek, Marx and Time Travel

April 13th, 2010 in the categories: Karl Marx, Star Trek, Time Travel

Alan Shapiro - Star guest of the next Transmediale - on new computers, 1968 and anarchism. Interview in the Berlin daily newspaper "Neues Deutschland," January 5, 2010