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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Improving the Information Society Through Awareness of Languages, by Alan N. Shapiro

February 12th, 2013 in Category: Information Society, Language

This is the text 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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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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Around the Town (a Sports Gambling story), part 2 of 4

August 5th, 2010 in Category: American Slang, Language, New American Studies

As they reached the south side of the Park, Siggy looked back at the sweep and majesty of this historical landmark. He noticed the variety of people who call this park their own. There were drug dealers and mothers with tots in strollers. There were old geezers and students from nearby New York University.
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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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Arguing the Case, by Marc Silver

May 23rd, 2010 in Category: Book Descriptions, Language

Employing analytical methods deriving from linguistics, logic, psychoanalysis and cultural and literary criticism, Marc Silver reveals the common premises and common illusions behind the claims being made about the “human sciences” today.
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The Klingon Language

April 14th, 2010 in Category: 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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The Fate of Languages

April 14th, 2010 in Category: Language

There are about 6000 living human languages spoken in the world today. The vast majority of Earth languages are in danger of imminent disappearance.
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Richard Rorty on Radicalism, Liberalism, and Poetic Language

April 13th, 2010 in Category: Jacques Derrida, Language, Polysexuality, Richard Rorty

I was very impressed reading something that Richard Rorty wrote about revolutionaries in his essay "The Contingency of Community" ( in the book "Contingency, irony, and solidarity"). Rorty argues very cogently for a kind of “impossible” deconstructive synthesis of radicalism and liberalism.