Author: Alan N. Shapiro

  • Alan N. Shapiro interviewed by Gerry Ryan

    I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Gerry Ryan on April 30, 2010, Ireland’s premier radio and television broadcaster and interviewer. Gerry was a great communicator. Gerry was a huge Star Trek fan. On June 1, 2005, I was interviewed for 45 minutes by Gerry on the Gerry Ryan Show.

  • The Car of the Future, more sketches, by Nick Pugh

    All images © Copyright Nick Pugh and Alan N. Shapiro, 2010  

  • Baudrillard’s Second Life, by René Capovin

    Fashion in the modern sense presupposes the becoming-autonomous of interaction, and is linked, in particular, to the communications of the mass media. In a society differentiated by functions, in fact, there is no one class or group that can impose its own “taste.” Everyone must conform their own taste to the information of all others.”

  • Georges Bataille and Epistemology

    Bataille’s Theory of Religion and The Accursed Share have been read by generations of Marxists, deconstructionists, and Baudrillard the man himself in economic terms. But, in the current situation of virtuality, it is most interesting to read these texts from an epistemological point of view.

  • Around the Town (a Sports Gambling story), part 1 of 4

    As they went inside Grand Central Station, Moe and Siggy saw hurried commuters moving with tunnel vision, not looking at the homeless. The bag ladies and street people would put a damper on one’s day. Past the panhandlers and cup rattlers, the squeegee people, and the Monte dealers, the determined nine-to-fivers kept moving.

  • The End of Homo Oeconomicus

    Da der Mensch ein lebendiges Wesen ist, müssen wir unser Konzept vom Menschen ändern, vom Homo Oeconomicus zu einer Idee des kreativen Menschen, wie der Physiker-Philosoph Hans-Peter Dürr sagt. Wie alle lebendigen Organismen verfügt auch der Mensch über eine Wachstumsfähighkeit.