Powers of Panopticisim An approximated 30 million surveillance cameras are used throughout the United States today shooting close to 4 billion hours of footage a week (Vlahos). While shopping in a department store glance above the merchandise to the ceiling where there will most likely be a surveillance camera, cameras are installed to spy on the public and employees. This sort of surveillance system is set up almost everywhere. Encouraging the public to act appropriately to the set of rules society has set up for us. Most people will chose to act in the right manor knowing the surveillance system is there, but others will decide to go along with their bad decisions. With this kind of security system it makes the job of an investigator easier when we have the action on video. Therefore, sending a higher power signal. We are being watched no matter where we are, in hopes that actions we might be doing will come to a halt. Michel Foucault seeks through his work, “Panopticisim”, to analyze how contemporary society is differently structured from the society that preceded us and to explain the experiments executed on the human mind through panoptic powers. The structure of Panopticon can be applied in any formal setting as a form of discipline and power. Do we comply with these rules to be accepted within society? Some would say that sounds reasonable, a set of universally set rules for everyone to follow in order for society to run in a better manor. After all, one must find their place in society in order to survive. Foucault introduces Jeremy Betham’s architectural realization of the Panopticon, as a prison for society and those who inhabit it. Betham proposed a building with a main purpose that would allow an observer to view prisoners without having the prisoners notice if they are being watched. In the center of the building would be a tower, “ pierced with wide