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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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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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)."
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“Twelve Monkeys” (film)

April 13th, 2010 in Category: Media Studies, Science Fiction Studies, Time Travel

Terry Gilliam’s brilliant film "Twelve Monkeys" raises critical questions about the linear nature of time and the causality of science. Möbius time travel will provide a fruitful tool for getting out of the hyperreality and myth of the end of history which surround us in modern culture.
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“Desperate Living” (film): John Waters’ Science Fiction Dystopia

April 13th, 2010 in Category: Media Studies, Polysexuality, Science Fiction Studies

Maybe it was the mono sound of my budget-priced video recorder, which the salesperson at Saturn Hansa had dubbed the 'Trabant' (der Trabi, das Symbol eines verschwundenen Landes, the symbol of a disappeared country, hat heute längst Kultstatus erreicht, has long since attained cult status) of VCRs.
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“Jurassic Park” (film): Newman Eaten by a Dilophosaurus

April 13th, 2010 in Category: Arts & Genomics, Media Studies, Science Fiction Studies

Steven Spielberg's stated goal for the film "Jurassic Park" (1993) is to achieve what he calls "total realism." He wants to make cinema coincide with the real. This is a symptomatic fantasy that Jean Baudrillard diagnoses in "The Evil Demon of Images" as "cinema attempting to abolish itself in the absolute of reality."
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“Blade Runner” (film): I, Alan N. Shapiro, am an Android

April 13th, 2010 in Category: Androids & Artificial Life, Media Studies, Science Fiction Studies

What makes "Blade Runner" extraordinary is that it artfully presents an alternative to the two predominant ways in which artificially intelligent machines or androids are thought about and depicted in mainstream techno-culture. These modes recur again and again in novels, scientific pundit books, and Hollywood films.