WEBVTT - Welcome to the Panopticon 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:14.760 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:19.160 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie teas Julie listeners. 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:24.560 Imagine a vast circular prison. Okay, you with me, yes, Okay, 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:27.640 Now you step inside, and you'll find a curious arrangement 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.280 of the cells. Because most of this enclosed face is 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:33.720 exactly bad. It's empty space. The quicle cells line the 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:36.519 circumference of the inner walls. Uh, several stories worth in 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.720 fact in their bars, all face inward toward a lone 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:43.920 guard tower known as the Inspector's Lodge. Okay, Now, standing 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:45.839 within your prison cell, you can't see any of your 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:47.800 fellow cell mates, can't see any of the other cells. 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:51.440 All you can see is this tower, and you can't 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:55.040 see the inspector, that supposedly man's it due to a 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:58.319 mesh screen. But you know he's there. You know he's watching. Uh. 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:01.080 You know he's referencing a detailed map of which prisoner 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.080 occupies which cell, and you know that he listens in 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.160 as well. But of course, the inspector can only look 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:09.640 or listen to one cell at any given moment, right, 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:11.920 but you never know if his attention is turned to you, 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:13.600 so you have to assume at all times that he 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:15.720 might be listening to you. You have to avoid that 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:17.920 type to error and cognition. It's the only way to 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:20.600 deal with the endless uncertainty. It's safer to assume, right. 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:24.080 And besides that, you know that prisoners are regularly moved 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:27.720 to new cells based on good or bad behavior. So 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:31.240 I see that you have had a look inside my house. 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:33.560 Oh is this how you have your house arranged? Yeah? 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:36.720 So you're the inspector. What makes it really easy to 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:39.880 keep tabs on everybody? Yeah? So I think what you 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:43.520 have just described as something called the panopticon. Yes, And 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:45.560 we're going to talk about this today. We're going to 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:49.160 look at how spaces can have the power to liberate, 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.240 as we've talked about before with labyrinths, or they have 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:56.400 the power to oppress. And when you think about prison 0:01:56.440 --> 0:02:00.200 and you think about prisoners, you think about anxiety, loneliness, 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:03.880 in vulnerability, and so this panopticon is really this idea 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:08.560 of these concentric circles closing in on us. Yeah. And 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:10.440 what's great about it is that it's not only this 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:14.760 this wonderful and then disturbing to varying levels design for 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:17.880 how we might use a physical space to have this 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.079 drastic effect on the human mind. But it also over 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:23.840 the years has been picked up as a philosophical idea, 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:28.160 as a metaphor that we apply to government, to internet culture, 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:30.600 you name it. I mean, you do a search for panopticon, 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:33.880 you will find people using it just about every uh 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:40.240 way they possibly can to criticize a given system of order, government, bureaucracy, etcetera. Well, 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:43.480 probably one of the oldest ways in which it's been 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:47.480 linked is this metaphor of the seeing eye of God, right, 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:51.760 particularly in Western culture, because when you're indoctrinated into Western culture, 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:56.680 you're indoctrinated this idea that there's this uh, this powerful 0:02:56.760 --> 0:03:00.399 gaze and this powerful memory of a deity looking over 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:02.760 all of us. Yeah, he knows what you've been doing 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.960 when you're awake. Yeah, Santa Claus and God kind of 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:09.919 the kind of share the same space and in the 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:12.520 Western mindset, and and you're right to to to your point, 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.800 the idea of the inspector and the Inspector's lodge and 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:18.440 that tower at the center of the Penoptacon is very 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:21.040 much the idea of a god, but a but a 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:24.800 very uh, non personal god, a god that's all up 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:27.040 in your business. But also you have you have no 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:30.280 real clue as to what they look like, what they are, 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:34.240 what their their their ideas are regarding your fate in 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:38.600 this strange, strangely ordered prison. Well, this is a vengeful God. 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.680 And um, this is something that you know what came 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:45.840 out of the mind of a English utilitarian philosopher by 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:50.920 the name of Jeremy Bentham, who unveiled this architectural marvel, 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:54.280 these plans for this panoptic into the world. So as 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:56.720 you said, you know, let's revisit that again that we're 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:00.680 talking about two sets of concentric towers within the other, 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:04.200 with cells lining the outer wall, being visible to and 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:07.160 subject to regulation from the watcher the eye of God. 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:11.000 And those people they would live, they would eat, they 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:14.680 would sleep and work in these cells and what they 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:19.359 thought was constant surveillance. Now give you a little background 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:23.280 Jeremy Bentham with the eighteen thirty two again. He's a 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:26.320 British philosopher and and something of a political radical. He's 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:30.359 mainly known for the philosophy of utilitarianism, which elevates actions 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:32.960 based on their relevant consequences to the overall happiness of 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:36.080 everyone affected. And he had something of a hedonistic approach 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:38.520 to happiness, defining its simply as a matter of experiencing 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:42.080 pleasure and a lack of pain. Um. Now, when it 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:46.640 comes to his uh popticon, uh he, his approach to 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:49.120 it was, this is an overall good idea. He wasn't saying, 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:52.520 I have a great humanity crushing concept. I want to 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:54.920 they all in the world, you know, he was saying, Look, 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:57.000 prisons are a mess. We're in this. We're in the 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:01.240 midst of of of overall attempts to form our prisons 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:03.840 and make them more effective and make them less horrifying. 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:06.320 So here's one way we can do it, and we 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:09.720 can make it more cost effective and overall just more 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:12.800 effective as well. Because if you have a couple of 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:15.880 guards in a central tower watching over everyone, then you 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:19.479 don't have guards that are going, you know, on the 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:21.880 beat to every single cell and looking over right, so 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.360 you have less manpower that actually has to enforce this 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:27.919 feeling that you're being surveiled. Yeah, you end up with 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:30.440 four guards that you're to only two of which are 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:32.880 actually paid because you have the two guys, you know, 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:34.919 one guy maybe walking around. You have one guy in 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.840 the tower, and then you have fear and uncertainty, and 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:39.760 you don't have to pay for those because those guys 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:43.760 are are are summoned out of the very physicality of 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.920 the structure. Yeah, and it's actually compounded that this this 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:51.800 this fear by this idea of having those cells being illuminated, 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:55.120 but the observation tower actually being dark, so that the 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:57.680 prisoners could be observed all the time. They wouldn't be 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:00.359 able to tell when they were being observed, and so 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:02.680 the goal is for them to learn to act as 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:06.440 if they were constantly under surveillance. And the idea is 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:08.599 that once this uh, I guess you could call it 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.120 self discipline was instilled, that prisoners could be released into 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:18.640 society with the capacity to regulate their own behavior through paranoia. 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:23.440 Really and yeah and benthem, I mean he's not again, 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:26.520 he's not trying to be dastardly about this. He's sort 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:28.920 of thinking, this is the way that we can uh 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:35.000 manage the prison problem and reform the prisoner via paranoia exactly. 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:37.600 So originally he thought about this as a prison design, 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:41.039 but he also thought it was quote applicable to any 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:44.600 sort of establishment in which persons of any description are 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.440 to be kept under inspection. So we're talking about insane 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:52.919 asylums for houses. But this is where it gets into society. Factories, schools, 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:57.640 and hospitals. Yeah, I mean, without without getting into the 0:06:57.680 --> 0:06:59.839 fine details of it, you can see where that would 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:02.080 that would make sense, and say a hospital where you 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:06.440 you want constant surveillance more or less of people's conditions, 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:08.520 or at the very least you want people to feel 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:12.400 like they're under constant care and surveillance, So that would 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:16.720 make sense. And obviously with the school situation, but sometimes 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.520 it feels like a school is very similar to a 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.480 prisoner insane asylum, and you have to have that kind 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:24.960 of order in place to make sure that everyone's doing 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.800 right and and obeying their the laws of the school, 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:32.520 not cheating on every test, not skipping classes. The problem 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:34.720 with us and we'll get more into this, uh in 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:39.200 a bit, is this inherent distrust right? Because Okay, you 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:43.080 see it extended to prisons, but factories, schools, and hospitals. 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:48.320 It's not necessarily just taking the form of hey, we're 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:51.160 just going to surveil and make sure everything is okay. 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:54.600 There's this idea that something is wrong. Someone somewhere is 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.440 doing something wrong. Right, Yeah, the whole system ends up 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.880 being predicated on guilt, and and it's him to Guildea. 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:03.960 All right, So what you're you're you're probably asking yourself. 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:06.720 You're saying, all right, well, where's the panopticon? Point to 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:09.480 the pen opticon, so I might see a picture of it. Uh, 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:12.119 And certainly there's some wonderful sketches of it, because I've 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.239 been to put a lot of thought and effort into 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:17.760 the designs. He worked with an architect. He was even 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:21.160 taught in talks to see his design implemented at one point. 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:24.520 But the Penopticon was never built in his lifetime. In fact, 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:28.320 no true panopticon prison was ever built another and no 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:30.600 one ever took his designs and said all right, I'm 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:33.520 gonna build this this thing that he designed. Part of 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.319 the problem here is that by the time surveillance technology 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.680 really caught up with his vision, you no longer need 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:43.320 that specific architecture to make it happen. Like once you 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:48.079 can actually wire every prison cell conceivably with video and audio. 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:49.679 If you've reached the point where you can do that, 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.960 you don't need this giant space with all this wasted 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:55.480 empty space between the cells and the tower. You can 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:58.080 just build a big, you know, farm of cubes and 0:08:58.080 --> 0:08:59.880 then just wire it up right. Yeah, I mean it 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:02.640 is a huge cost, and politicians were interested, but they 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:05.200 weren't necessarily going to implement it. Yeah, and we see 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:07.360 this all the time even today. You know, you're always 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.040 finding stuff showing up in your your feed, your news feed, 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:11.920 or your Facebook feed where it's like some crazy design 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:14.240 that's going to innovate the way that we travel or 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.520 do business or live. And for the most part, you're 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:19.760 not going to see those designs implemented. Those represent the 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:24.360 extreme that under the best of situations will um you'll 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:27.080 see aspects of that implemented further down the chain, or 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:32.240 at least will draw um inspiration and innovation in that direction. Right. 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:34.920 But so it was never truly built, but it's still 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:40.080 influenced other prisons. Yes, And probably the best example that 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:42.520 we can we can find for this is a Cuba's 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:46.680 UH Presidio MODELO and this was built between n and 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:52.920 nine and it actually consists of five panopticon buildings, each 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:57.280 designed to hold prisoners. So these are five buildings UH 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:01.400 cells lining the inside of the the outer walls, and 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:03.199 then there's a tower in the center where the guards 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:06.000 would be able to watch everyone. And uh, you know it, 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:09.160 it operated, it was functional, and you actually saw some 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:11.560 some star prisoners there. I Fidel Castro was a prisoner 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:14.320 there during the rebellion and uh, but of course, then 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:16.679 after his rise to power, you see the thing just 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:21.960 stuffed with political prisoners, um, homosexuals, Jeovah's witnesses, counter revolutionaries, 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:26.120 various enemies of the state, and so the population quickly 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:30.040 skyrockets to six thousand inmates. Now, of course, that's the 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:32.040 thing about prisons. If they're built to contain a certain 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:36.720 number of people. Um, if you overstuffed them, you're gonna 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:40.960 overload any system, You're gonna overload the wiring of the prison. 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:43.720 And that's exactly what happened, you that you have overcrowding 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:46.079 at least riots in nineteen sixty one, and then it 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:48.640 was permanently closed by the government in nineteen sixty six. 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:50.800 Today it's a museum and I think there's a school 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:53.400 there and also some some offices. But for the most 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:55.000 part you can you can still find pictures of this 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:57.680 online and and you can visit it if you're in Cuba, 0:10:57.920 --> 0:10:59.920 and it's a it's really remarkable to look at because 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:05.199 is it's the idea of the panopticon brought to physical life. 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:09.360 I wanted to point out a quote by Architects, Designers 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:12.800 Planners for Social Responsibility that's a d p s R. 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:16.120 There is an essay on this about prisons and panopticon, 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:20.040 and the quote is the best intention. Reformist designs have 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:23.640 believed that more complete control of prisoners through design would 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:27.160 be used only to further higher goals such as religious 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:31.320 awakenings and in a reflection, but in fact control is 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:36.040 an end in itself, and prisons just recreate the powerlessness 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.079 of the member of poor and oppressed groups under even 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:42.720 stricter rules than they face on the outside. That was 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:45.480 something interesting to ponder just in general. Not you know, 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:50.160 the panopticon is really this idealized version of power and control. 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:54.119 But the prison system as it exists right now, Um, 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:57.720 there are many people who would say that it doesn't work, 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:00.520 it doesn't reform. I agree, I agree, And that's that's 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:02.640 definitely a subject for another episode. We could do a 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:05.520 whole episode on the state of prisons and and the 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:08.200 mindset that goes into prison designs. Overall and just let 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:11.120 the philosophy that goes into an house change over time. Indeed, 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:13.240 so let's take a quick break, and when we get back, 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:16.520 we are going to look more at this panopticon from 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:27.040 the perspective of Michelle fel Cole. All right, we're back. 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:31.079 So yes, Uh, that's the best example of the panopticon 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:35.480 physically that we have. And you do see uh panopticonic 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:40.400 elements incorporated into various other prison designs. But for the 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:42.720 most part, where panopticon continues to have the most power 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:46.160 today is as metaphor. That's right. And uh, that's why 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:48.199 I wanted to bring up that quote by the A. D. 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:53.360 Spr because Michelle Fockle is a French philosopher who brought 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:58.240 up the panopticon as this idea of a metaphor of 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:03.120 our society. That disciplinary systems are prisons in particular, with 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:06.520 a panopticon is the ideal type there they can be 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:11.280 social failures. Yeah, fo Call's picture of modern disciplinary society 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:15.440 breaks into three primary techniques that governmental powers used to 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:22.160 control the masses. That's hierarchical observation, normalizing, judgment, and examination. 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:25.720 Now and where this panopticon enters into all that is 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:29.080 that according to focal power over people can can be 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:32.800 achieved merely by observing them. So it's like with the panopticon. 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.360 But the deal is that a single inspector would be impossible, right, 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:38.760 especially when you're talking about governmental power, So you need 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:42.040 relays of inspectors. You need all of them arrange in 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:44.360 a hierarchy so that data can pass up and down 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:47.000 the chain based on importance. And in all of this 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:51.400 fool focusing on society's modern transition from a quote culture 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:55.280 of spectacle to make our sero or prison culture. Now 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:56.880 this gets into the idea that what happened when you 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.079 broke the law in the old days, and like really 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.480 broke it, like broke it hard, you would be made 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.200 spectacle of right, And that's what he says. He says 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:06.520 that this is a quote for him. By the effect 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.760 of backlighting, one can observe from the tower standing out 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:12.680 precisely against the light, the small captive shadows, and the 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:15.679 cells of the periphery. They are like so many cages, 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.960 so many small theaters, in which each actor is alone, 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:23.480 perfectly individualized and constantly visible. So he's saying that this 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:27.160 stage that the has been reversed, that the audience is 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:31.120 now in the cells, and the actor, the performer, is 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.360 that that watch person looking over everybody else, and it 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:39.400 still remains too spectacle. Really, Yeah, a reversal of the 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:42.840 old days where everyone will be gathered around the guillotine 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:44.640 or the heads of his block, or the or the 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.640 news or what have you. So, yeah, and within those 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:51.840 three points that you had made, the hierarchical distribution of information, 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.680 examination of the information, but also normalizing. This is a 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:56.960 really important aspect of this, and this is what a 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:58.520 lot of people run with when they look at our 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:02.320 society today, look at the different ways that panopticon can 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:06.640 exist in different formats. So what call has to say 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:09.640 about normalizing, he says, Hence the major effect of the 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:13.560 panopticon to induce in the inmate a state of conscious 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:17.560 and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power. 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:20.280 So to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:24.040 its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action. Again, 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.440 this is sort of going back to what Bentham was 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.720 really saying, is trying to instill that paranoia that you're 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:33.920 being watched even if you're not being watched. Yeah, they 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.520 might be watching me. So therefore there's this always feeling, 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:38.400 there's always this feeling that kind of evens out that 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:41.440 they are watching me. Yeah, and I'll just skip ahead. 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:43.240 In this quote, he says, in short, that the inmates 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:45.640 should be caught up in a power situation of which 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:49.320 they are themselves the bearer. So they are the bearer 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:52.520 of this, and it's this normalization of always being under 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:54.760 the gaze. And this is what call had a problem 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:57.840 with because he said that again, it's not just limited 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:01.200 to prison design. It's a meta for for all types 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:04.880 of different social organizations and structure, schools, factories, and governments 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:08.320 now perdue universities. Dino Feluga breaks down the effects of 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:12.040 pen optic organizational models into into seven overall effects, and 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:13.960 I think these are pretty interesting. This again is his 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:18.320 view and his commentary on focals philosophy. Number One, society 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:22.240 becomes less willing to contest unjust laws, like everyone's under 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.320 the gaze of the observer, and so therefore, even if 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:28.960 the law seemed to becoming becoming unjust, you're less likely 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:31.080 to speak out of them, because the gaze is in 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:35.680 theory on everyone uh. Number two, rehabilitation rather than crueler 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.760 and unusual punishment. So again we talked about that it 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:42.360 becomes more about the prison system rather than the spectacle. Uh. 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:46.040 Then there's birth of an information society. You become more 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:49.200 and more dependent on technology and record keeping. Uh. You 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:52.400 have a bureaucracy of information in which people become numbers 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:54.320 because again you're having to keep track of everybody and 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:56.960 keep track of everything. And this is the panoptic system. 0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:59.880 Efficiency becomes more and more important, even at the cost 0:16:59.880 --> 0:17:04.320 of exploitation or injustice. And finally, a specialization. Members of 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:08.080 the workforce are organized into increasingly specialized fields so that 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:12.000 we increasingly rely on other experts to complete tasks that 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:15.320 had previously been shared or common knowledge, so that you know, 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:20.560 we're talking to the preparation of meats and other food products, building, construction, transportation, etcetera. 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:24.960 His idea here is that with the panopticon, it kind 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:29.560 of breeds bureaucracy, and bureau bureaucracy is the uh is 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:33.560 the brick and mortar of the governmental Uh penopticon to 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:38.600 power panopticon. Uh, that that is society. Yeah, and these 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:42.360 these unwritten rules, UM, and this idea that you're being surveiled, 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:45.040 this idea that it's all normal. Right, you can start 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.639 to look around and as people have done, particularly at 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:52.440 the drone situation, and say, okay, so what about the 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:55.280 pentopticon and modern society. We'll start to think about how 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:59.520 the Pentagon has scores of communication satellites, many of them 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:02.880 for link drones, grand roots and imagery analysts. There are 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:07.520 some seven thousand aerial drones compared with fear than fifty 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:11.120 a decade ago. Now consider that we increasingly have something else, 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:14.240 spy flies which were equipped with sensors of micro cameras, 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:17.560 and the fact that since September eleven, uh the hours 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:20.120 the Air Force devotes to flying missions for intelligence, surveillance 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:23.640 and reconnaissance have gone up three thousand, one hundred percent. 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:27.840 And everyday the Air Force processes fifteen hundred hours of 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:30.480 full motion videos and in the fifteen hundred still images, 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:33.920 a lot of it from the predator drones and reapers. 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:40.000 So that's one tiny aspect of surveilling power that exists 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.399 in the world today, and of course, in the in 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:44.720 the past few months, the n s A has been 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:48.240 all over the headlines for both its domestic surveillance programs 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:52.480 and its international surveillance programs and uh and that of 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:54.240 course is a really hot button topic as well, with 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.240 critics charging of the NSA not only infringes on our privacy, 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.960 but lays the technological groundwork for a true police state. 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:04.239 And it's really just part of an overall poptic um 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:07.520 structure on society. Yeah, and the problem there is that 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:13.040 legislation cannot keep up with technological advances. So you have 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:16.440 these sort of things being rolled out and if they 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:19.640 are challenged, and then takes a while to actually get 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:22.159 that policy in place or that law in place to 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:26.159 sort of balance out what sort of surveilling power is 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:31.520 needed to run a government versus what just becomes overwhelming 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.880 and and there's a huge debate about that right now. Um. 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:38.960 The other thing is that in a way, every time 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:44.800 you use the Internet, you are willingly submitting yourself to 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:48.399 this penopticon. I mean you think about the humble cookie, right, 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:52.920 I mean you're talking about this tiny, little omniscient tendril 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:57.920 of the Internet that gathering information about you. It's recording 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:01.359 your Internet browsing habits, and it's reporting them to a 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:04.480 business that you know nothing about. So in a way, 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:09.280 the corporation becomes the tower you know, the central tower 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:13.119 with the watchman, and we are in those little cubicles 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:15.760 surrounding it with all of our information being passed on. 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:17.680 And I'm not trying to be dramatic about it. It's 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:20.320 just if you really want to look at this system, 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:24.119 this panoptic system, and look at it in the digital sphere, 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:27.440 that's an essence how it's working. Yeah. Like I think 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.560 of browsing the Internet at work, which I mean in 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:33.520 some places of work, that's that's already breaking the rules. 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:35.640 Here we do a lot of Internet research, so it's 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:39.200 it's part of our job. But but every time we 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:41.840 we conduct a search and go to a website here 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:46.400 at work, there are like several layers of potential panopticonic 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.400 thinking going on. First of all, all right, the cookies 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:52.280 that are talking to my Facebook and to me into 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:55.480 this site and this site. You know what to what 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:57.439 degree am I being watched there? The side I just 0:20:57.440 --> 0:20:59.520 went to. All right, all these different corporations just found 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:02.400 out about it. Uh, next time using a work machine 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:05.399 on a work Internet connection. I know that they have 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:07.919 certain systems in place. I don't know the details of 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:11.560 them or how they work, but I know that they 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:16.080 can slash our, you know, observing what I'm doing on 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:20.080 my machine and uh and so it eventually becomes this 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:23.000 situation of you you feel like you're observed all the time, 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:27.199 and what are you comfortable being observed doing? You know, 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:29.159 you end up rationalizing like, all right, I'm going to 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:32.439 this website. I'm clearly going here for research. I have 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:35.800 a good excuse when the inspector leaves the tower and 0:21:35.840 --> 0:21:37.760 comes to get me, like like, that's the kind of 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:40.480 weird thinking you're you're left in because you assume you're 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:44.480 being watched. Now, to add to this um are other 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:49.240 technological chats, advancements, however you want to swing it. I'm 0:21:49.280 --> 0:21:53.240 thinking about Google Glass because here some people would say, okay, 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:56.679 here's this thing that is recording not only audio, but 0:21:56.920 --> 0:22:00.879 video of everything that's going around them. So now we 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:05.720 have this idea of the panopticon as us gathering information 0:22:05.760 --> 0:22:08.760 about one another. And this does sound a little bit paranoid, 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:11.760 but I think that the crux of this argument is 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:16.520 if and when everyone is wearing Google Glass, then it 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:21.320 becomes normalizing behavior to surveil people even though you're not. 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:24.000 You wouldn't call it surveiling. You know, your co workers 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:27.640 or your friends, but you are gathering data about them, 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:31.000 and essentially there is a third party that is using 0:22:31.040 --> 0:22:34.159 that data in some way and linking it up with 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:37.840 other data. And we've talked about facial recognition systems, or 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:40.959