In the 18th centur r I 0‘ . )_ i i
Bentham develoPcé’ 25:1t Jeremy A E
prison. He called his priSOn a of "
from the Greek word meaning “all—segii; ”
was designed with a central guard t u do“- It
which every prisoner could be 0“ u hum
Observed 24
hours a day, seven days a week. At any given
time, prisoners could never be sure ifthey
were being watched or not, and thereforé
they would be less likely to break prison rules,
In fact, Bentham said that the guards might
even leave from time to time: the prisoners,
thinking that they were still being watched,
would continue their good behavior. Two
centuries later, in 194-9, British author George
Orwell, in his classic novel 1984, wrote about
a future society where it is impossible to evade ‘
surveillance by the authorities. In the novel,
citizens are constantly reminded of
the authorities” presence by the phrase
“Big Brother is watching you.”
In a sense, the world of surveillance predicted
by Bentham and Orwell has already come to
pass.1 Public video systems are now in use
in many cities around the world. In Paris,
For example, there are road cameras nearly
everywhere to help regulate traffic, and some
2,000 cameras on city buses“ detect and deter ‘
r l'ilnL'. In Britain in the 19705 and ’805. cities
and towns began installing cameras to monitor
v.1 reels and parks, public transportation,