Not surprisingly, panopticism renders a good deal of society powerless and incapable of resisting now codified power structures. As a social theory, it suggests that in order to maximize the power of punishment, prison's ought not adopt the "hiddenness" aspect of dungeon theory. Instead, prisoners (as well as patients and schoolchildren) should be subject to full lighting, which is contrary to the "ultimately protected" cover of darkness, in order that they may be trapped.
He posits that this formulation of discipline "assures the automatic functioning of power." In typical Foucault fashion, he sets up a dominant power structure that will be perpetuated throughout society and is nearly impossible to esacape. He writes, "the disciplines provide, at the base, a guarantee of the submission of forces and bodies." The forced submission is much more than mere subservience; the "disciplining" of subjects has less to do with discipline and much more to do with the forced conformity to some sort of social norm. And in his argument to the benefits of the seperation of society into natural categorizations (i.e. normal/abnormal) as opposed to complete isolationism, Foucault really seems to be arguing for a certain discipline that makes the "abnormal" normal and politely returns them to society.
I share in Jeremy Bentham's surprise at this mindless societal resignation to fate, "there were no more bars, no more chains, no more heavy locks; all that was needed was that the seperations should be clear and the openings well arranged." On a similar note, I am still a bit surprised at the frequency of Bentham's name in this paper; Bentham's work on utilitarianism seems a bit contrary at best and antithetical at worst to the ideas of Michel Foucault. With an understanding of how comprehensive Bentham's utilitarian calculus was, one that prevented the sacrifice of a few for the good of many, I can scarcely imagine his endorsment of an extension of his idea for an institution, the panopticon, to a theory on how society might be ordered to perpetuate oppressive power structures and force submission by citizens.
"He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake. he knows if you've been bad or good...by the phone calls that you make!"
Thomas Campanella's piece, Eden by Wire: Webcameras and the Telepresent Landscape explores the advancement of technology in making distances shorter, providing more immediate images with a "telepresence" of sorts, and in an increase of surveillance in various aspects of the public sphere. He first dotes upon the advent of the webcamera as something that made seeing beautiful sights possible to the average person. Consequently, this new technology seemed to have the ability to shrink distances. He explains that the invention of the locomotive and the rail transport lead to the adoption of a uniform time standard in the United States. He writes, "subsequent advances in transportation technology-fast steamers, the Suez Canal and eventually the airplane-osculated the great distances separating Europe, Asia, and America." He explains that the telegraph and wireless radios made long distance communication a lot more feasible, radically altering the lives of nearly every human on the planet.
He goes on to talk a bit about the phenomenon that is the world wide web, and discusses the role "telepresence" plays there. What he means with this term is much more than simply webcamera technology. He goes to on to explain what else it encompasses, using impossible to understand (albeit technical) terminology to advance his claims. He concludes by conceding that the inherent weaknesses of the webcamera technology are nearly mitigated by the fact that their popularity has broadened their network and, consequently, enabled generally effective communication and broadened knowledge base. He explains in the next section, "coffee pot to deep space" that the new technology made everything more accessible by the general public. People who were formerly helpless were able to benefit from the advances of technology while exerting very little extra effort.
The last section warns of the dangers of this surveillance technology as a potentially massive invasion of privacy, something analogous to a "Big Brother" situation. His warnings are timely considering the U.S. House of Representatives' disgustingly ironic decision on Thursday to call a "closed door session" to debate the newest surveillance legislation.
