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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Media theory: beyond the dualities of form and content, critical and enthusiastic, real and fake

February 4th, 2012 in Category: Media Studies

On January 26, 2012, I gave a lecture in the Speakers' Series of the Centre for the Study of Theory, Culture and Politics at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.
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How can we redefine information in the age of social media?

February 4th, 2012 in Category: Information Society, Social Media

On January 24, 2012, I was a keynote speaker at the BOBCATSSS conference on Information Management in Amsterdam. The conference was organised by students from 3 universities of applied sciences, namely Hogeschool van Amsterdam (NL), Hanze Hogeschool Groningen (NL), and Stuttgart Media University (GER).
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“Point, Click, Love”: A Novel by Molly Shapiro

January 14th, 2012 in Category: American Literature, Fiction, Social Media

Other commentators will talk about the "chick lit" dimension of the novel "Point, Click, Love." I will talk about the book’s intellectual side.
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Improving the Information Society Through Awareness of Languages

September 29th, 2011 in Category: Information Society, Language

This is about half of a paper that I presented at the ISEA2011 festival of new media, electronic and digital arts in Istanbul, Turkey on September 21, 2011.
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The Identity and Anxiety of Colonial Dublin in Joyce’s Dubliners, by James Shapiro

March 20th, 2011 in Category: Irish Literature

Anxiety and self-consciousness are particularly modern maladies, intensified by mechanized technology.
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Morality in Europe Today

February 5th, 2011 in Category: Music, University of the Future

There is a crisis of liberalism in Europe today. Liberalism and radicalism need each other. It is not a question of giving up one for the other, as so many activists and intellectuals in our history unfortunately did.
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A Turning Point for Media?

February 5th, 2011 in Category: Media Studies

Media studies has operated with a binary opposition or dualism between deep thinkers like Innis, McLuhan and Baudrillard who disparaged content and believed that "the medium is the message" and ordinary practitioners who wrote about content but in a way rather uninformed by theory.
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Teaching Two Media/Cultural Studies Seminars

January 28th, 2011 in Category: Media Studies, Quantum Culture

I am teaching two media/cultural studies seminars online at the VASA Project, founded and managed by Roberto Muffoletto, director of the Media Studies Ph.D. programme at a major American university.
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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...
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Halloween at Bayville Scream Park

October 29th, 2010 in Category: Horror

"WHEN SUMMER ENDS IN AUTUMN GLOOM THEN PIRATES RISE FROM GRAVE AND TOMB."
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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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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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Germans overestimate (and underestimate) their knowledge of English

August 21st, 2010 in Category: Language

I received an e-mail from amazon.de. They want to sell me a book by Vattimo called "The Responsability of Philosophy." The only problem is that the correct spelling of the word is: responsibility. They want to make money from people who read books in English, but they can't take the responsibility to learn how to spell.
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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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Around the Town (a Sports Gambling story), part 3 of 4

August 9th, 2010 in Category: American Slang, Language, New American Studies

LINDA: Nice job against the Packers, but don’t expect the Niners to lie down so easy. We intend on kicking the Cowboy’s butts. Just two more wins and our boy Steve goes to Disneyland and we’re on the way to a dynasty.
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