panopticon

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“
Apparently, just knowing that you're inside the panopticon is good enough to govern behavior, as Jeremy Bentham believed it would.

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Definitions (7)

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  1. A proposed prison of supervision, so arranged that the inspector can se each of the prisoners at all times without being seen by them: proposed by Jeremy Bentam. In a Panopticon, what can be the necessity of curious locks? … Lock-picking is an operation that requires time and experiment, and liberty to work at it unobserved. What prisoner picks locks before a keeper's face? Bentham, Panopticon, postscript, i. § 14.
  2. An exhibition-room for novelties, etc. Art Journal.
  3. In astronomy, a kind of telescope and microscope combined. Mr. Martin, when I called to see his panopticon, had not one ready; but was to let me know when he should have one to show me. Franklin, Letters, Works, IV. 176.

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Examples (50)

  • I mean, yes, let us by all means grant the President not only the right but the solemn duty and obligation to construct a worldwide panopticon enforcing its all-seeing Defense-diktat with death drones and killer robots and preemptive wars and a global gulag of black-site prisons, just so long as he stays away from our boards of directors. —  Who Is IOZ?
  • Actually, the evidence would suggest that the reason for the Mumbai attacks was not to establish a pretext for creating a panopticon state. —  Slashdot: Your Rights Online
  • The cameras are nothing more than panopticon tactics, themselves knee-jerks for often-drinking-related downtown antics of which the police force has lost control - and this costly, largely untested scheme won't get it back. —  The Daily Iowan - Online Edition
  • Slide 9: And to the VLE The virtual learning environment is a panopticon for learning and teaching Typically bought by a committee Imposed as an institutional —  Recently Uploaded Slideshows
  • The "always-on panopticon" does have its draw-backs and Skype is the latest victim of State-sanctioned surveillance. —  Megite Technology News: What's Happening Right Now
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Etymologies (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Greek πᾶς (παν-), all, + ὀπτικόν neuter of ὀπτικός, of or for seeing: see optic. Cf. Greek πανόπτης, all-seeing, πάνοπτος, seen of all.
 

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