Decoding Digital Culture with Science Fiction - by Alan N Shapiro (Paperback)

About the Book

Alan N. Shapiro investigates the social impact of Virtual/Augmented Reality, AI, social media platforms, robots, and the Brain-Computer Interface.

Book Synopsis

How do digital media technologies affect society and our lives? Through the cultural theory hypotheses of hyper-modernism, hyperreality, and posthumanism, Alan N. Shapiro investigates the social impact of Virtual/Augmented Reality, AI, social media platforms, robots, and the Brain-Computer Interface. His examination of concepts of Jean Baudrillard and Katherine Hayles, as well as films such as Blade Runner 2049, Ghost in the Shell, Ex Machina, and the TV series Black Mirror, suggests that the boundary between science fiction narratives and the »real world« has become indistinct. Science-fictional thinking should be advanced as a principal mode of knowledge for grasping the world and digitalization.

Review Quotes

Alan N. Shapiro's timely account of artificial intelligence, deep learning, and related technological advances offers a more hopeful vision of our future with machine learning - one which counters the deluge of techno-sceptical narratives to which we've grown accustomed. Shapiro foregrounds the field of Creative Coding - a hybrid field where art, morality, and computation intersect - as a site of resistance. Creative Coding is, for Shapiro, crucial for the design of our posthumanist future.--Chris Clarke-Dawson "Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change, 10(1), 03 (July 2025)"

Shapiro presents a rich, compelling, and convincing approach to his analysis of sf film and television. While academic scholars are the target audience who will benefit the most from this book, its transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary foci and analysis will also be stimulating for students, sf enthusiasts, and computer scientists/humanists who are keen on collaborating, exploring beyond their fields of interest, or reconsidering how these fields are and can be interlinked. Shapiro's many intellectual and adventurous insights offered here will find readers abundantly rewarded.--Curtis Runstedler "Science Fiction Film and Television, July 2025."

»Shapiro's work unveils an all-encompassing framework that masterfully integrates a myriad of perspectives from cultural studies, media theory, and science fiction theories in the realm of popular culture. This meticulously crafted structure delves into the intricate concepts of hypermodernism, hyperreality, and posthumanism to offer profound insights into the transformative impact of digital media technologies both at the societal and individual levels.«-- "Yuwei Huang, Journal of Popular Culture, 05.12.2024"

»Shapiros poetics of coding certainly enriches the scientific and philosophical debate in view of the fact that artificial intelligence (AI) is now considered a sparring/ jarring partner. Thanks to Shapiros background in the philosophy of science, the book mobilises an impressive array of theoretical references bridging any so-called divide between Continental and Analytic Philosophy.«--Vanessa A.C. Freerks "Theoria, 71 (2024)"

About the Author

Alan N. Shapiro teaches media theory at Hochschule für Künste Bremen and future design research at Hochschule Luzern. He has also been visiting professor of transdisciplinary design and heterotopia at the Folkwang Universität der Künste, Essen, and worked for many years as a software developer. He is originally from New York City and lives in Frankfurt.