Keeping an Eye On You

[Amerist]

Right now there is an article on Wired.com on surveillance and sousveillance during an impromptu tour perpetrated by Steve Mann (everybody’s favorite cyborg) after the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Seattle this week.

I myself am annoyed by clandestine observation, even when it is argued that it is there to protect employees and products from theft. Having read the article I can understand why anyone who has observation on their premises will state that they have the right observe those who are their guests but will not permit their guests to take photographs of their surveillance equipment. There is security in obscurity, after all, why let people know where your cameras are? They might figure out how to exploit the blind spots. After all, your coustomers are also your enemy or you just want to treat them that way.

But I got a bit more out of this article than simply the pretext of the work.

This leads me to the part of the article that made me smile the most:

The mere possibility that someone might be watching prisoners would be enough to alter their behavior, ensuring, in the words of French philosopher Michel Foucault, that the effect of surveillance would be ongoing even if the surveillance itself wasn't. The mere perception of power would "render its actual exercise unnecessary."

Surveillance Works Both Ways (Apr. 14, 2005) Kim Zetter, Wired.com

This is an extension of something become known as the Hawthorne Effect: the observable fact that a group of people under observation will change their behavior because of the observation. While the Hawthorne studies really showed that while under observation the workers performed better, I suggest that this can be extended also to other facets of behavior, including social, such as the above with prisoners. In the case of prisoners “performing better” becomes “good behavior” or something similar.

Now, people may be aware of my Knight Investigators books. Also that Dougal Hawthorne is the name of one of the characters who spends most of his time in a policing position. At the time that I had named him it wasn’t after this effect—we can all thank one of my friends for finding this—but he perfectly fits the role of becoming an incarnate manifestation of what I’m going to call the Hawthorne-Foucault Effect.

Ever heard the expression “like she has eyes in the back of her head?” Well, imagine a police officer who is impossible to track. He has his own will, mysterious wiles, and has been known to appear in two highly distant locations at virtually the same time. After running afoul of this fellow once you can never be absolutely certain that he isn’t watching you, at least some of the time.

So, the next time you are walking through your favorite store, and you feel that you’re being watched. Look up, wave, and see how much of an eye you can keep on the eye on you.

[The_Dark]

I think there is already a name for this in physics. Not awake as yet so can't remember what it is. I can only remember that the act of observing something changes the observed.

[Amerist]

I think there is already a name for this in physics. Not awake as yet so can't remember what it is. I can only remember that the act of observing something changes the observed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sounds a lot like the Copenhagen Interpretation, which includes such things as Heisenberg's Uncertainty principle and Schrödinger's Cat.