Alan N. Shapiro is a media, technology, science fiction, and software theorist. He teaches advanced seminars at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, at the Art and Design University in Offenbach, at the Art and Design University in Milan, and at the Arts University in Berlin. Recently he was the keynote speaker at the Plektrum Festival in Tallinn (2011), at the conference on “Knowledge of the Future” at the University of Vienna (2011), at the BOBCATSSS Information Management Conference in Amsterdam (2012), at the IEEE Conference on the Information Society in London (2012), at the Share Art Festival in Turin (2012), at the Conference on Hybrid Art and Science in Tallinn (2012), and at the ISI International Symposium of Information Science in Potsdam (2013). He has recently published 15 e-books. Alan worked 20 years as a software developer and IT consultant in industry.