### Summary The **panopticon** is a type of institutional building and a system of control — basically a prison — designed by the English philosopher and social theorist [Jeremy Bentham](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham "Jeremy Bentham") in the 18th century. The central idea is that all prisoners should be observable by a *single security guard*, without the inmates being able to know if they are being watched or not. Psychologically, the goal is to give each prisoner the impression that they're being watched at all times — so that they are motivated to regulate their own behavior. This goal isn't really possible so instead, designs adopted in the real world (there are hundreds with designs like this) have a few guards responsible for watching up to ~100 prisoners. ### Bentham's design... ![[panopticon.png]] See the [Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon) for a computer rendered version of the above. --- #### Related [[random]] [[prisons]]