Both Michel Foucault and Alexander Galloway wrote about the notion of protocol on how society is organized and controlled. Foucault focuses on how the panopticon represents the way in which discipline and punishment work in past and modern society. Galloway describes it as a diagram and as a technology. The two authors have different perspectives on how the society is disciplined, however Galloway's and Foucault's account of discipline differ in their application; Foucault's is clearer while Galloway's is unclear with how he sees the technology can influence the society.
In the essay, "Panopticism," by Michel Foucault, he makes the argument that we live in a society of "surveillance". Meaning that our society is based on intermixture of "forces and bodies" all of which is influencing the individuals. It is notably that this surveillance which forms the basis of power that draws the individual to believe that the world he or she lives in is one that is continually watching over him or her. This constant friction of mental forces shapes who the individual becomes within the society. He or she accepts how the system works with no question. According to the passage, "Our society is not one of spectacle, but of surveillance; under the surface of images, one invests bodies in depth; behind the great abstraction of exchange, there continues the meticulous concrete training of useful forces;" (Foucault 334). .
Foucault gives support to the basic argument concerning the panopticon, that communication is key to knowledge. Within the panopticon, there is no communication among the prisoners or those who view them. This effect gains the ability to penetrate into people behavior. It is a form of control to gain power without enforcing physical force.
In the introduction of Alexander Galloway's book, Protocol, he explains the notion of control by extending the knowledge of history, specifically, the French history.
