Moral philosopher and founder of Utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham, theorizes that actions directly relate to their outcomes. For example, individuals that act positively receive positive results. This simple concept is a highly beneficial way to view life. In 1813, Bentham created the Panopticon, a prison system based on his Utilitarian belief that good things come to good people which he proposed that the French government should adopt. They may have declined this system which guarantees order and only positive actions by an all seeing watcher, but China was inspired. The prisoners, in cells around the circumference, are able to be seen at all times for accountability purposes. The beauty behind it is that they do not know when they are being watched because of their distance and therefore lack of visibility inside of the tower. This perk of the Panopticon is that it "reverses the principle of the dungeon; or rather of its three functions – to enclose, to deprive of light and to hide – it preserves only the first and eliminates the other two" (Foucault, 5).  Prisoners are no longer hidden in dark cells but are now extremely well lit. They must use their looking-glass self to make sure they stay out of trouble by doing the right thing! Read more about Bentham's panoptic structure here (just ignore the word "penitentiary", that is not associated with the social credit system)!

In 1975, Michel Foucault took the idea of the Panopticon to the next level with general panoptic surveillance. In his study Discipline & Punish, he claims that panoptic surveillance can be applied to all citizens, not just prisoners. Won't citizens act differently when they know they are being watched? How will that boost overall morality? Foucault used Bentham’s panoptic prison structure to answer these questions.  He demonstrates the way to provide order to an entire society. "If the inmates are convicts, there is no danger of a plot... if they are patients, there is no danger of contagion; if they are schoolchildren, there is no copying, no noise, no chatter, no waste of time; if they are workers, there are no disorders, no theft, no coalitions, none of those distractions that slow down the rate of work, make it less perfect or cause accidents" (Foucault, 5-6). The objective of his panoptic surveillance is to move towards an overall moral society. Read more here!