Panopticon:
Jeremy Bentham‘s ideas on how the greatest happiness principle should be applied were not always well-conceived. Bentham spent much of his time and fortune on designs for the Panopticon. The Panopticon (“all-seeing”) was a prison. It was designed to allow round-the-clock surveillance of the inmates by their superintendent. Bentham’s intention was humanitarian; but penitentiaries are not the best advertisement for a utilitarian ethic.
The Panopticon, Utilitarianism.com
Noted in “Green Christmas: How to have an ethical and guilt-free festive season,” Alice Klein and Chelsea Whyte, NewScientist (1 December 2018, paywall):
An extension of the ever-watchful threat is the Elf on the Shelf, a figurine that some parents place in their house that is said to be reporting to the North Pole like some kind of festive CCTV – [ethicist H. Peter] Steeves likens it to a panopticon.
