The Panopticon Singularity was first described by Charles Stross in an essay originally written for the Whole Earth Review's 111th issue, where he describes it as "a police state characterised by omniscient surveillance and mechanical law enforcement." Charles Stross at Worldcon 2005 in Glasgow Charles David George Stross (born Leeds, October 18, 1964) is a writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... Whole Earth Review is the former name of a magazine once known as CoEvolution Quarterly and now known as Whole Earth. ...

The foundation of the Panopticon Singularity rests in Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon, but it is an entire police state rather than just a prison, and it utilizes a number of technologies that are available as of 2005 or within a decade. Jeremy Bentham (IPA: ) (February 15, 1748 – June 6, 1832) was an English gentleman, jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. ... Panopticon blueprint by Jeremy Bentham, 1791 The Panopticon is a type of prison building designed by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham. ... A police state is a political condition where the government maintains strict control over society, particularly through suspension of civil rights and often with the use of a force of secret police. ...

It bears a strong resemblance to the concept of "ubiquitous law enforcement" mentioned in Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky Vernor Steffen Vinge (IPA: ) (born February 10, 1944) is a mathematician, computer scientist and science fiction author who is best known for his Hugo award-winning novels A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky, as well as for his 1993 essay The Technological Singularity, in which... A Deepness in the Sky (1999) is a science fiction novel by Vernor Vinge. ...

See also

• Closed-circuit television

The two-year-old Jamie Bulger being led away by his killers, recorded on shopping centre CCTV. Closed-circuit television (CCTV), as a collection of surveillance cameras doing video surveillance, is the use of television cameras for surveillance. ...

References

Charles Stross' Whole Earth Review article