Alan N. Shapiro is the author of Star Trek: Technologies of Disappearance. At his website Alan N. Shapiro, Technologist and Futurist, he has published 250 articles about media and technology theory. Alan teaches seminars at universities in Milan, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, and Offenbach. Recently he was a keynote speaker at conferences on knowledge of the future, information management or society, and hybrid art and science. In July 2012, he gave the International Flusser Lecture in Berlin.