a type of building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century; allows all (pan-) inmates to be observed (-opticon) by a single watchman without the inmates being able to tell whether or not they are being watched
libertarian paternalism derives from Bentham's 'panopticon', a prison design enabling prisoners to be watched by a guard at all times and their behaviour monitored. Bentham's idea was to give prisoners apparent free choice, while knowing they would be punished if they made the 'wrong' choice.
The city of the future is shaping up to be a neighborly Panopticon
the de-anonymized social media platforms, where most young people now develop their political ideas for the first time, became a panopticon, in which the mny lived in fear of observation from the eagle eye of an offended organizer of public shaming
Service providers on a platform with a reputation system live in a Panopticon
disciplinary society has its Panopticon, the extension of carceral logic from the penal system outward into all institutions of social conditioning
And have they a highly popular panopticon there containing nothing but trees
on Paris
Michel Foucault popularized this metaphor. The panopticon was Jeremy Bentham's prison design in which cells were arranged in a circle around a central guard tower so that all prisoners were put under constant surveillance with maximum efficiency by a small number of guards.