General Will 2.0: Rousseau, Freud, Google
Hiroki Azuma, John PersonWhatever countervailing hopes the worldwide web gave rise to in its dawning years, far from restoring the “public sphere” of yore, the internet has completed its fragmentation. According to Japanese thinker Hiroki Azuma, the way forward must be sought through what network technology is actually good at: aggregating & processing the traces we leave (without always meaning to) every time we wade into the world of connectivity.
Harking back to Rousseau & his idea of the general will, dropping by Freud & his discovery of the unconscious, taking inspiration from Google & the tenor of its innovations, revisiting Christopher Alexander & his highway planning, & making curious bedfellows of Twitter, Rorty, & Nozick, General Will 2.0 is a wild ride bound to delight not just citizens who “care” but those who find doing so to be increasingly difficult & false.