The Panopticon:

 

The Panopticon has become associated with many negative issues associated with a contemporary discourse around privacy and surveillance. However, the focus on the negative interpretation of the Panopticon does not do justice to the utilitarian and humanist ambitions of its creator. After much political wrangling the Panopticon was rejected in favour of a more traditional English prison where suffering, disease, abuse and retribution reigned.

 

The Panopticon was liberal in comparison, it was a visionary design by a thinker a couple of centuries ahead of his time. He envisaged the Panopticon as having far wider humanitarian applications 'to all establishments whatsoever, in which, within a space not too large to be covered or commanded by buildings, a number of persons are meant to be kept under inspection' (Bentham, 1843), such as hospitals, schools, and possibly, OnLine learning.