couple of hundred years ago, the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham dreamt up an enormously unpleasant method of using architecture to stamp out anti-social behaviour. Bentham called for prison cells to be built around shielded watchtowers, or "panopticons", from which guards could monitor prisoners unobserved. He argued that the pressure of living under steady scrutiny, rather than punishments in themselves, would slowly mould each prisoner into a model citizen. Best of all, Bentham suggested, there doesn't have to actually be a guard in the panopticon for the panopticon to 'work'. After all, the suspicion of being spied on is often more daunting than the certainty...
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The Forgotten City is a quietly horrifying story about sin and surveillance
Source: PC Gamer (opens in a new tab)