PANOPTICON: ARE THEY WATCHING?
A few centuries ago, some brainy guy had the bright idea to build prisons that would police themselves. How? By making it possible for the security guards to watch all the prisoners, all the time. His idea was that if the prisoners thought they were being watched, they’d behave, regardless of if there was anyone watching or not. Good thing they didn’t have micro-drones and mini-cameras available, eh?
Well, looks like his idea has finally come to life. And not just in prisons—actually, that was pretty much a bust, since criminal types tend not to care if they’re being watched in jail—after all, they’re already in jail, so what else can happen? It’s the honest citizens, the wageslaves and corporate sheep, who happily plod along believing that some good shepherd is watching over them. Most don’t think twice about the requirement to broadcast their SIN and ID in public places. The ubiquitous drones whirring by are ignored, just part of the landscape. It’s assumed that cameras are watching everywhere, omnipresent. No one thinks about the data trail they leave every time they access a public ARO, buy a soy-kaf, ride a bus, or enter a public or private area. Before the worldwide wireless Matrix initiative, it was possible not to leave a data trail. Heck, it wasn’t even that difficult; using credsticks, anonymous bank accounts with the Malaysian Independent Bank or some other private institution, a commcode number registered through a black-market service … all that and a nice suit, and you could pretty much go anywhere without raising flags.
Now, to operate in the sprawl, you have to have a SIN, an ID, and a commlink. Everywhere you go, every icon, storefront or public terminal you access creates a record. Drones patrol the street, scanning people to ensure they have commlinks broadcasting the right data. Cameras are imbedded everywhere, recording and analyzing every move. Wireless transmissions are intercepted, analyzed, and recorded. Or so we’ve been told. So we believe.
Is it true? Are "they" really watching, all the time, everywhere, everyone? Well … yes and no. Psychologically, it doesn’t really matter—if people believe they’re under surveillance, they’ll act accordingly. In corporate areas, like office buildings and the like, there probably is someone watching. In public spaces, there isn’t enough man-power or funding to really staff all those surveillance systems, so they rely on programs and agents, which aren’t particularly great at operating outside their programmed parameters. Now, if they’re looking for someone specific, then they can track them down. If a crime does happen, they’ve got it recorded. Lucky you.
> I’d like to point out that numerous studies have shown that this theory doesn’t work, that omnipresent camera surveillance has done little to nothing to decrease crime, and that the only thing it has done is helped destroy civil liberties and give authorities unlimited opportunities for abuse.
> Aufheben