Alan N. Shapiro, Hypermodernism, Hyperreality, Posthumanism

Blog and project archive about media theory, science fiction theory, and creative coding

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The Identity and Anxiety of Colonial Dublin in Joyce’s Dubliners, by James Shapiro

March 20th, 2011 in the categories: 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 the categories: 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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Questioning Steven Hawking’s Scientific Discourse, by Marc Silver and Simon Schaffer

February 5th, 2011 in the categories: Science & Technology

This text is an interview-conversation between Professor Marc Silver of the University of Modena and Professor Simon Schaffer of Cambridge University that took place in Cambridge, UK in November 1995.
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Claude Lefort, Political Philosopher, by Alan N. Shapiro

January 31st, 2011 in the categories: Claude Lefort

"Democracy" in America is obsolete. It is a simulation of democracy. How do we get back to (or move forward to) being a real democracy? By understanding the lifework of Claude Lefort, the greatest thinker of democracy of our time. By understanding Lefort’s writings.
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Today is a Sacred Day

January 23rd, 2011 in the categories: American Football

One of the most inspiring days of my life was January 12, 1969. Super Bowl III. My brother and I watched the game on a small black-and-white TV. We saw the Jets, who were 19 point underdogs, beat the mighty Baltimore Colts. David slew Goliath. It was possible for the most unbelievable of dreams to come true.
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I Love Bologna, Italy

January 16th, 2011 in the categories: Photography

Most tourists - for example, American tourists - go to Venice and Florence. Between those two fascinating cities lies the undiscovered gem which few tourists visit: Bologna.
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Science Fiction in Venice: Future Venue of the Quantum Culture Conference

January 9th, 2011 in the categories: Quantum Culture

In my Science-Fictional-Becoming-Real imagination, the Quantum Culture and Quantum Thinking conference in Venice will take place at the Liassidi Palace hotel.
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Conference on Quantum Culture in Venice

December 31st, 2010 in the categories: Quantum Culture

I have had enough of conferences about Digital Culture. During this Vaporetto ride, the answer dawns on me: we need to develop the paradigm of Quantum Culture. Curate a conference on Quantum Culture and Quantum Thinking. The conference will take place in Venice.
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Learning to Love Androids: The Wondrous World of the Universal Scholar Alan Shapiro, by Florian Fricke

December 14th, 2010 in the categories: Quantum Physics Sociology

The journalist Florian Fricke is the winner of the 2010 German Environmental Media Prize.
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Baudrillard, Globalization and Terrorism, by Douglas Kellner

December 3rd, 2010 in the categories: Jean Baudrillard

Douglas Kellner is the George Kneller Chair in the Philosophy of Education in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. He is a “third generation” critical theorist in the tradition of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, or "Frankfurt School." He is the author of about 10 books.
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Baudrillard und Trek-nologie, von Alan N. Shapiro

November 27th, 2010 in the categories: Jean Baudrillard, Star Trek

Beginnen wir mit dem Ende der sechziger Jahre in New York, dem Ort meiner Kindheit. Als guter Jude sollte ich eine jüdische Erziehung bekommen. Stattdessen liebte ich Star Trek. Alles, was ich weiß, habe ich von Star Trek gelernt.
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Star Trek: How the New Comes into the World

November 7th, 2010 in the categories: Star Trek

Most scientists and academics who write about Star Trek claim to be fans and lovers of the series. But their customary methodologies deny to Star Trek its true originality as the creator of a reality-shaping "science fiction" that formatively influences culture, ideas, technologies, and even "hard sciences" like physics.
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Star Trek: 20 Basic Principles

November 7th, 2010 in the categories: 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 the categories: Horror

"WHEN SUMMER ENDS IN AUTUMN GLOOM THEN PIRATES RISE FROM GRAVE AND TOMB."
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Beaubourg, Quai Branly, and the Simulacrum of Jean Baudrillard, by René Capovin

October 23rd, 2010 in the categories: Architecture, Jean Baudrillard

"Quai Branly is a remake of Beaubourg, in a different field of art. Whereas Beaubourg is a perfect institution in the field of modern art (as Baudrillard himself explicitly says – the first part of my essay is dedicated to his famous 1977 article on Beaubourg), Quai Branly is a perfect institution in the field of 'primitive art'."
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