In 2009, critic and philosopher Hiroki Azuma had a dream. It was a recurring dream (as befitting of someone well-versed in the psychoanalysis of Freud and Jacques Lacan), and riddled with complexities. In his own words, which open the introductory chapter of "General Will 2.0: Rousseau, Freud, Google," it was "a dream about the society of the future." One, he says, in which politics is informed by information technology, and its ability to visualize societal consciousness: the so-called "General Will 2.0" of the title — his updated version of a term coined by 18th-century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

General Will 2.0: Rousseau, Freud, Google, by Hiroki Azuma, Translated by John Personand Naoki Matsuyama.
240 pages
VERTICAL, Nonfiction.