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"Panopticon"is a place in which everything is in full view of others．
A recent New York Times"House and Home"article featured the story of a man who lives in a glass house．Every wall in his home is transparent； he has no walls to hide behind，not even in the bathroom．Of course，he lives in a remote area where he doesn't exactly have neighbors looking in and watching his every move．But he has chosen to live without any physical privacy in a home that allows every action to be seen．He has created his own panopticon of sorts．
The term panopticon was coined by Jeremy Bentham in the late eighteenth century when he was describing an idea for how prisons should be designed．The prisoners'cells would be placed in a circle with a guard tower in the middle．All walls facing the center of the circle would be glass．In that way，every prisoner's cell would be in full view of the guards．The prisoners could do nothing unobserved，but the prisoners would not be able to see the guard tower．They would know they were being watched-or rather，they would know that they could be being watched-but because they could not see the observer，they would never know when the guard was actually monitoring their actions．
Similarly，it is common that people behave differently when they know they are being watched．We act differently when we know someone is looking； we act differently when we think someone else might be looking．In these situations，we are less likely to be ourselves； instead，we will act the way we think we should act when we are being observed by others．
In our wired society，many talk of the panopticon as a metaphor （隐喻） for the future．But in many ways，the panopticon is already here．Monitoring cameras are everywhere，and we often don't even know our actions are being recorded．In addition，we leave a record of everything we do online．And most of us have no idea just how much information about us has been recorded and how much data is a