Alan N. Shapiro Explained

Alan N. Shapiro
Birth Date:	23 April 1956
Birth Place:	Brooklyn, New York
Nationality:	American
Fields:	Science fiction studies, Media theory, Technological art, Artificial intelligence, Transdisciplinary design, posthumanism
Alma Mater:	MIT Cornell University New York University
Known For:	Changed public perceptions of Star Trek, Changed public perceptions of Baudrillard, Introduced idea of Dialogical Artificial Intelligence

Alan N. Shapiro (born 23 April 1956 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American science fiction and media theorist. He is a lecturer and essayist in the fields of science fiction studies, media theory, posthumanism, French philosophy, creative coding, technological art, sociology of culture, software theory, robotics, artificial intelligence, and futuristic and transdisciplinary design. Shapiro's book^[1] and other published writings on Star Trek have contributed to a change in public perception about the importance of Star Trek for contemporary culture.^{[2] [3] [4]} His published essays on Jean Baudrillard - especially in the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies^{[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]} - have contributed to a change in public perception about the importance of Baudrillard's work for culture, philosophy, sociology, and design.

Shapiro has contributed many essays to the journal of technology and society NoemaLab — on technological art,^[11] software theory,^[12] Computer Science 2.0,^[13] futuristic design,^[14] the political philosophy of the information society,^[15] and Baudrillard and the Situationists.^[16]

Career

Shapiro has been visiting professor in the Department of Film and New Media at the NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti) University of Arts and Design in Milan.^[17]

He has also been a lecturer at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, at the Art and Design Universities in Offenbach (where he taught creative coding and futuristic design from 2012 to 2015)^[18] and Karlsruhe;^[19] at the Institute of Time-Based Media at the University of the Arts, Berlin;^[20] at Domus Academy of Design and Fashion in Milan;^[21] and at ABADIR Design Academy in Catania.^[22]

From October 2015 to September 2017, Shapiro was visiting professor of Transdisciplinary Design in the Department of Industrial Design at the Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen.^[23]

Since October 2017, Shapiro is a lecturer in media theory at the Art University of Bremen, and teaches "design and informatics" at the University of Applied Sciences, Lucerne, Switzerland.

Shapiro is also a software developer, with nearly 20 years industry experience in C++ and Java development. He has worked on several projects for Volkswagen, Deutsche Bahn (DB Systel), and media and telecommunications companies.

Publications

Shapiro's book was published by the Transcript Verlag in June 2024. The book is distributed in North America by the Columbia University Press.

Shapiro is the editor and translator of The Technological Herbarium by Gianna Maria Gatti, a groundbreaking book about technological art.^[24] He has three contributions to the innovative book on social choreography Framemakers: Choreography as an Aesthetics of Change^[25] edited by Jeffrey Gormly.

His book was published in German by the Walther König Verlag in 2014.^[26]

His edited book Transdisciplinary Design was published by the Passagen Verlag in 2017.^[27]

He has chapters in the books Design und Mobilität: wie werden wir bewegt sein? (2019),^[28] Nevertheless: Manifestos and Digital Culture (2018),^[29] Searching for Heterotopia (2019),^[30] and Tracelation (2018).^[31]

Shapiro has published several widely cited essays on the disaster of Donald Trump in relation to hyper-modernism.^{[32] [33] [34]} In 2019, he published an influential essay on Dialogical Artificial Intelligence in the magazine of the German national cultural foundation.^[35] He has lectured several times on the meaning of Patrick McGoohan's TV show The Prisoner.^[36]

The 2017 Audi Annual Report features a discussion about the impact of AI on society between Shapiro, Audi CEO Rupert Stadler, and David Hanson of Hanson Robotics, Hong Kong.

Shapiro has also been featured as a thinker by Bertellsmann in "We Magazine",^[37] by Deutsche Bank in "Economy Stories,"^[38] and in the technology and fashion print magazine WU (Milan).^[39]

Lectures and keynotes

In 2010–2011, Shapiro lectured on "The Car of the Future" at Transmediale in Berlin, Germany,^{[40] [41]} and on robots and androids at Ars Electronica.^{[42] [43]}

In September 2011, Shapiro gave a major speech at the Plektrum Festival in Tallinn, Estonia on "The Meaning of Life."^[44]

Since 2011, Shapiro has been keynote speaker at several conferences:

• "Knowledge of the Future" at the University of Vienna (2011),^[45]
• BOBCATSSS conference on Information Management of the organization of European university libraries (2012),^[46]
• IEEE Conference on the Information Society in London (2012),
• ISI International Symposium of Information Science, University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam (2013),^[47]
• retune Creative Technology conference in Berlin (2013),^[48]
• Alig'Art Festival on Sustainability in Cagliari (2014),^[49]
• the conference on interactive media and utopia at Jagiellonian University, Krakow (2014),^[50]
• the conference on hyper-modernism at the National Center of Scientific Research, Paris (2016),
• the conference on art and politics in Italy, and the conference on transdisciplinary design, at the Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen (2017),^[51]
• the Zurich Design Biennale (2017),^[52]
• the Quadraga University "Transform Your Business" conference in Berlin (2018),
• the Swiss National Additive Manufacturing conference in Lucerne (2018).^[53]
• How to Regulate the Media When They Are Ubiquitous and Have Gone Viral: From Utopian Science Fiction to Practical European Policy, Angela Merkel team-organized EU conference “Media in the Digital Society,” Berlin, July 2020.

Lectures

• In July 2012, Shapiro gave the International Flusser Lecture at the Vilém Flusser Archive, Institute for Time-Based Media, University of the Arts, Berlin.^[54]
• In October 2016, Shapiro gave a lecture on artificial intelligence and science fiction at the BASE Cultural Center, Milan that was attended by 350 people.^[55]
• In 2018, Shapiro spoke at the MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, and at Pratt Institute of Design in Brooklyn, NY.
• In August 2019, Shapiro gave a lecture on Baudrillard in French at the renowned Cerisy-la-Salle cultural center in Normandy.^[56]
• In February 2020, Shapiro gave a lecture on "Body, Self and Code in Hypermodernism" at the Schaubühne theater in Berlin that was attended by 450 people, as part of the Streitraum series of events moderated by Carolin Emcke.^[57]
• In July 2020, Shapiro was the keynote speaker at the European Union conference on "Media in the Digital Society," giving a talk entitled "How to Regulate the Media when they are ubiquitous and have gone viral: from utopian science fiction to practical European policy."^[58]
• In October 2020, Shapiro was featured on the 3Sat German TV program Kulturzeit, as part of their 25th anniversary Zeitwende show, talking about Science Fiction as a utopian model of thinking.^[59]
• Technological Anarchism, Watergenics, Berlin, November 2022.

Science fiction

In a 10-page review-essay of his book Star Trek: Technologies of Disappearance, the journal Science Fiction Studies called his book one of the most original works in the field of science fiction theory.^[60] See also the extensive discussions of Star Trek: Technologies of Disappearance in Csicsery-Ronay's major reference work on science fiction studies,^[61] in The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction^[62] and in The Yearbook of English Studies.^[63]

Life

Shapiro was accepted at age 15 as an undergraduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He studied at MIT for 2 years. He received his B.A. from Cornell University, where he studied government and European Intellectual History. He has an M.A. in sociology from New York University (NYU).

Shapiro's thinking was shaped very much by his participation in the student movement in Bologna, Italy in the late 1970s.

Shapiro has lived almost exactly half of his life in the United States (32 years), and half in Europe (36 years—mostly in Germany, but also some years in Italy, Switzerland and France).

External links

• Alan N. Shapiro: Technologist and Futurist
• lecture in Berlin on "The New Computer Science" December 8, 2009
• "I Consider Star Trek to be a great text of Western Civilization," Joachim Scholl interviews Alan N. Shapiro.
• article on Shapiro in the Berlin daily newspaper "Neues Deutschland" January 5, 2010
• interview on Deutschlandradio, February 5, 2010
• lecture in Amsterdam on Wikipedia at the Critical Point of View, Wikipedia Research Initiative conference, March 26, 2010
• Alan N. Shapiro interviewed by Father Roderick about Star Trek, on Catholic WIFI radio
• Alan N. Shapiro (together with Patrick Lichty and Father Roderick) interviewed by Erik Boekesteijn on Wikipedia and libraries, on vimeo show "This Week in Libraries."
• Bayerischer Rundfunk 38-minute programme about the ideas and projects of Alan N. Shapiro, produced by Florian Fricke March 26, 2010
• "Re-Thinking Science," We-Magazine Special: Future Challenges, Bertelsmann Foundation, April 2010.
• "Who Are the New Radical Thinkers in Europe?" (discussion with Franco Torriani) NoemaLab.org 2010
• "Lost: The Crash Out of Globalization and into the World" AVINUS Press Online Magazine, 2007
• video of lecture in Leipzig on "The Library of the Future" at the Critical Point of View, Wikipedia Research Initiative conference, September 26, 2010
• "The Future of the Image, part one", Journal on Images and Culture, February 2013
• 112-minute radio programme about Mr. Shapiro on Estonia Public Broadcasting Radio 2 on the show »HALLO, KOSMOS!«, September 2011.
• 15-minute interview with Mr. Shapiro on the television program "Wonderland" on the Italian TV station RAI4, October 2012.
• Interview with Mr. Shapiro about "Lost" on the television program "Mainstream" on the Italian TV station RAI4, June 2012.
• Interview with Mr. Shapiro about "The Prisoner" on the television program "Mainstream" on the Italian TV station RAI4, June 2012.
• Towards a New Green Politics, October 2012
• Video Interview, May 2013
• Software Code as Expanded Narration, February 2014
• The Meaning of 'The Prisoner', April 2014
• Storytelling and Ideas in the Age of Computer-Intensive Media Products, March 2015
• The Internet of Creators, April 2015
• Creative Commons, The Next Generation, July 2015
• From Digital Culture to Quantum Culture, July 2015
• As Creators Make Money, They Transform What Money Is, August 2015
• nella nuova fantascienza gli androidi hanno un cuore Interview at Milan World Expo, September 2015
• Philosophy, Science and Ecology, December 2015
• Creative Coding video, 2015
• Donald Trump Casino Owner: Seduced to Losing by the Lure of Winning, February 2016
• Homage to Bernie Sanders’ Democratic Socialism and George Orwell’s 1984, February 2016
• The Paradox of Foreseeing the Future, February 2016
• What is Hypermodernism?, March 2016
• Fiktion ist der Schlüssel zu kreativen Lösungen, June 2016
• Baudrillard and Trump: Simulation and Object-Orientation, Not True and False, January 2017
• Baudrillard and Trump: The Fifth Order of Simulacra, February 2017
• Light-Writing from Las Vegas, August 2017
• Star Trek Forscher in Luzern, 2018
• Alan Shapiro: Dank Star Trek zur nächsten technischen Revolution, 2018
• The Simulacra of Public Space: The Work of Christos Voutichtis, 2018
• Gestalt-Ideas at the Interface between Theory and Practice, 2018
• Gerry Coulter, Sophie Calle, and Baudrillard's Pursuit in Venice, November 2018
• Zur Mobilität von Morgen, video interview, 2018
• Mobility and Science Fiction, June 2019
• The Prisoner as The Hostage and the Episode A., B., and C, September 2019
• Baudrillard's Importance for the Future, October 2019
• Roadmap künstliches Leben: Auf dem weg zu dialogischer künstlicher Intelligenz, 2019

Notes and References

1. Book: Shapiro, Alan N. . Star Trek: Technologies of Disappearance . Berlin . AVINUS Press . 2004 . 3-930064-16-2.
2. http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=91 Alan Shapiro, Captain Kirk Was Never the Original
3. http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=95 Alan Shapiro, The Star Trekking of Physics
4. http://www.redroom.com/blog/alan-n-shapiro/data-sherlock-holmes-ship-a-bottle Alan N. Shapiro, Data as Sherlock Holmes: Ship in a Bottle
5. https://www.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/vol-6_1/v6-1-shapiro.html Alan N. Shapiro, Re-Discovering Baudreality in America
6. https://www.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/vol2_2/shapiro.htm Alan N. Shapiro, Baudrillard and Trek-nology (Or Everything I Know I Learned From Watching Star Trek and Reading Jean Baudrillard)
7. https://www.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/vol-7_1/v7-1-shapiro.html Alan N. Shapiro, Cultural Citizenship In Contemporary America
8. https://www.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/vol-11_2/v11-2-shapiro.html Alan N. Shapiro, Jean Baudrillard and Albert Camus on the Simulacrum of Taking a Stance on War
9. http://www2.ubishops.ca/baudrillardstudies/vol-13_2/v13-2-shapiro.html Alan N. Shapiro, Baudrillard and Existentialism: Taking the Side of Objects
10. https://baudrillardstudies.ubishops.ca/gerry-coulter-sophie-calle-and-baudrillards-pursuit-in-venice/ Alan N. Shapiro, Gerry Coulter, Sophie Calle and Baudrillard’s Pursuit in Venice
11. http://org.noemalab.eu/sections/ideas/ideas_articles/shapiro_technological_herbarium.html Alan N. Shapiro, Gianna Maria Gatti's The Technological Herbarium
12. http://org.noemalab.eu/sections/ideas/ideas_articles/shapiro_society.html Alan N. Shapiro, Society of the Instance
13. http://www.alan-shapiro.com/the-paradigm-of-object-spaces-better-software-is-coming-by-bernhard-angerer-and-alan-n-shapiro/ Alan N. Shapiro and Bernhard Angerer, The Paradigm of Object Spaces: Better Software is Coming
14. Alan N. Shapiro and Alan Cholodenko, Car of the Future, NoemaLab.org (July 2009)
15. http://noemalab.eu/ideas/political-philosophy-of-the-information-society/ Alan N. Shapiro, Political Philosophy of the Information Society
16. http://noemalab.eu/ideas/baudrillard-and-the-situationists/ Alan N. Shapiro, Baudrillard and the Situationists
17. http://cinema.everyeye.it/notizie/il-7-novembre-alan-shapiro-spiega-star-trek-111145.html Alan Shapiro spiega Star Trek
18. https://issuu.com/hfg_of/docs/hfg_annual_report_2014_kleiner_20a4ffe7c77a12 Senior Lecturer, Offenbach Art and Design University
19. http://infoart.hfg-karlsruhe.de/transmedia-workshop-sf-films-and-computer-games-alan-n-shapiro/ Alan N. Shapiro, Computer Games and Transmedia
20. http://www.designtransfer.udk-berlin.de/projekt/software-beyond-software-alan-n-shapiro/ Alan N. Shapiro, Software Beyond Software
21. Web site: Domus Academy Masters in Interaction Design . 2017-01-01 . 2016-12-30 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161230040823/http://www.domusacademy.com/en/master/master-in-interaction-design/ . dead .
22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3X_lLpLI_o Alan N. Shapiro, Creative Coding
23. Web site: Visiting Professor of Transdisciplinary Design, Folkwang University of the Arts . 2017-01-01 . 2017-01-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170102080618/http://www.folkwang-uni.de/de/home/hochschule/studium/lehrende/profil/?mehr=1&detaildozent=772 . dead .
24. Book: Gatti, Gianna Maria . The Technological Herbarium . Berlin . AVINUS Press . 2010 . 978-3-86938-012-4.
25. Book: Gormly, Jeffrey . Framemakers: Choreography as an Aesthetics of Change . Limerick . Daghdha Dance Company . 2008 . 978-0-9558585-1-2.
26. http://www.buchhandlung-walther-koenig.de/koenig2/files/store/Archiv/06.10.2014_vorschau.pdf Alan N. Shapiro, Die Software der Zukunft: oder Das Modell geht der Realität voraus
27. https://cba.fro.at/334677 Transdisziplinäre Gestaltung
28. https://fruehwerk-verlag.de/ Mobilität und Science Fiction
29. http://17.manifestos.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/17manifestos_web_full_revisited.pdf Light-Writing from Las Vegas
30. https://adocs.de/en/buecher/monografie/searching-heterotopia Science Fiction and Heterotopia
31. Web site: Towards a Software of the Concealing World . 2019-12-10 . 2019-12-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191210172026/https://www.archivebooks.org/2017/08/15/tracelation-tyyne-claudia-pollmann/ . dead .
32. http://www.alan-shapiro.com/ Alan N. Shapiro, Baudrillard and Trump: Simulation and Object-Orientation, Not True and False
33. http://www.alan-shapiro.com/more-on-baudrillard-and-trump-by-alan-n-shapiro/ Alan N. Shapiro, Baudrillard and Trump: The Fifth Order of Simulacra
34. http://www.alan-shapiro.com Alan N. Shapiro, Donald Trump Casino Owner: seduced to losing by the lure of winning
35. Web site: Alan N. Shapiro, A Roadmap to Intelligent Life. On the Way to Dialogical Artificial Intelligence . 2019-12-10 . 2019-12-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191210141935/https://www.kulturstiftung-des-bundes.de/en/magazine/magazine_33-1/a_roadmap_to_intelligent_life_on_the_way_to_dialogical_artificial_intelligence.html . dead .
36. http://www.alan-shapiro.com/the-prisoner-as-the-hostage-and-the-episode-a-b-and-c/ Alan N. Shapiro, The Prisoner as The Hostage and the Episode A. B. and C.
37. Web site: Alan N. Shapiro, Rethinking Science . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110724131254/http://www.we-magazine.net/we-volume-03/re-thinking-science/ . 2011-07-24 . 2010-11-19.
38. http://www.freundevonfreunden.com/workplaces/alan-shapiro Alan N. Shapiro, Hybrid Thinking
39. Web site: Alan N. Shapiro, Intervista . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20170101232535/http://www.wumagazine.com/blog/alan-n-shapiro-intervista/ . 2017-01-01 . 2017-01-01.
40. http://www.transmediale.de/de/alan-n-shapiro-us-session-phuturama-part-1-2 video of Car of the Future talk, part 1
41. http://www.transmediale.de/de/alan-n-shapiro-us-session-phuturama-part-2-2 video of Car of the Future talk, part 2
42. http://org.noemalab.eu/sections/ideas/ideas_articles/shapiro_humans_androids.html Alan N. Shapiro, Towards a Unified Existential Science of Humans and Androids
43. http://www.alan-shapiro.com/the-humanities-informatics-programme-for-building-robots-slash-androids/ Alan N. Shapiro, An Interdisciplinary Approach to Building Robots
44. Web site: Alan N. Shapiro, What is the Meaning of Life? . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120402205129/http://plektrumfestival.com/en/2011/09/what-is-the-meaning-of-life-alan-n-shapiro/ . 2012-04-02 . 2011-09-23.
45. http://germanistik.univie.ac.at/uploads/tx_cal/media/WissendZukunft_Flyer_DinL.pdf Alan N. Shapiro, Anticipating the Future Through Knowledge of the Fiction in Social Reality
46. http://hva.mediamission.nl/mediasite/SilverlightPlayer/Default.aspx?peid=586555cfde42435bb7b22cdccb5c07af1d Alan N. Shapiro, The Future of Social Media
47. http://www.isi2013.de/keynotes/ Alan N. Shapiro, Semantic Information Science
48. Web site: Alan N. Shapiro, Software Code as Hybrid of Productive and Creative . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160815180618/https://retune.de/2013/ . 2016-08-15 . 2017-01-01.
49. Web site: Alan N. Shapiro, Sustainability in Art, Ecology and Economics . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20170102080551/http://www.castedduonline.it/eventi/eventi/17239/cagliari-al-via-il-festival-alig-art.html . 2017-01-02 . 2017-01-01.
50. Web site: Alan N. Shapiro, Storytelling and Ideas in the Age of Computer-Intensive Media Products . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20170101231857/https://hismastersvoice.org/hmv2015/ . 2017-01-01 . 2017-01-01.
51. https://www.folkwang-uni.de/home/gestaltung/aktuell/vollanzeige/news-detail/symposium-transdisziplinaere-gestaltung-essays-der-folkwang-universitaet-der-kuenste/ Transdisciplinary Design conference Folkwang University
52. http://en.designbiennalezurich.ch/pdf/en/designbiennale_conference.pdf/ Zurich Design Biennale
53. https://www.additively.com/de/veranstaltungen/2-nationale-additive-manufacturing-konferenz-new/ Swiss Manufacturing Association conference
54. http://www.flusser-archive.org/ Alan N. Shapiro, Software Studies as Extension of Media Theory
55. http://base.milano.it/events/alan-shapiro-riprogettare-lumano/ Alan N. Shapiro, Riporgettare L'umano
56. https://cerisy-colloques.fr/baudrillard2019/#Alan-N-SHAPIRO/ Alan N. Shapiro, L'importance de Baudrillard pour l'avenir
57. https://www.schaubuehne.de/de/produktionen/streitraum.html?ID_Vorstellung=4062&m=2 Alan N. Shapiro, Body, Self and Code in Hypermodernism
58. https://eu2020-medienkonferenz.de/en/kick-off-event/ Alan N. Shapiro, How to Regulate the Media when they have gone viral
59. https://www.3sat.de/themen/25-jahre-kulturzeit-100.html Alan N. Shapiro, Kulturzeit TV show
60. http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/review_essays/icr97.htm Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., Escaping Star Trek
61. Csicsery-Ronay, Istvan, Jr., The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2008), 136-138
62. Mark Bould, Andrew M. Butler, Adam Roberts, and Sherryl Vint, eds., The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction (Routledge Literature Companions) (New York: Routledge, 2009), 228-234 passim, 370-372,
63. Bould, Mark, "On the boundary between oneself and the other: aliens and language in the films AVP, Dark City, The Brother from Another Planet, and Possible Worlds", The Yearbook of English Studies (July 2007).