This realization was exploited most powerfully for pragmatic ends by the 18th- century philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who set out to resolve an important problem ushered in by the industrial age, where, for the first time, institutions had become so large and centralized that they were no longer able to monitor and therefore control each one of their individual members, and the solution that he devised was an architectural design originally intended to be implemented in prisons that he called the panopticon, the primary attribute of which was the construction of an enormous tower in the center of the institution where whoever controlled the institution could at any moment watch any of the inmates, although they couldn't watch all of them at all times.
Ovu je spoznaju najmoćnije iskoristio u pragmatičke svrhe krajem  18. stoljeća filozof Jeremy Bentham koji si je postavio za zadaću  riješiti važan problem nadošao s industrijskim dobom u kojemu su, po prvi puta,  institucije postale tako velike i centralizirane da više nisu bile u stanju pratiti i kontrolirati svakog svojeg pojedinog člana i rješenje do kojega je došao bio je arhitektonski dizajn originalno zamišljen za zatvore, kojega je on nazvao panoptikon, a primarna mu je odlika bila konstrukcija ogromnog tornja posred institucije kojim je tkogod bi kontrolirao instituciju mogao u svakom trenutku  promatrati svakog zatvorenika iako ih nije mogao promatrati sve u svakome trenutku.