The Panopticon

Criminals are caught nearly 99.999% of the time. There are drones hovering above cities recording a permanent record of every square inch in Hyper HD. What good is a mask when there is a record of everywhere a person goes? “Nothing to hide?”

Sadly, they hardly need drones. Most people carry around a smartphone equipped with GPS, streaming data to Google for permanent storage. People voluntarily give up their interests and schedules for trivial convenience. The hegemons are probably recording ambient noises and camera images every last second the phone is on. These images are all recovered “only” in the case of crime or civil suit.

The Panopticon’s first sight of new territory is through the camera of a fully loaded drone as outsourced specialists make sure the bombs detonated effectively and on target. The bombs turn first into gore and then smartphones. No buttons are even pushed. The process is entirely automated. This is how the Panopticon spreads. It will remember every moment of every human event with ever-increasing clarity.