Privacy And Power In Incognito

The cyberpunk genre explores issues such as how technology can be used in a dreadful way, a world where privacy does not exist and a world where power is abused. Incognito is a novel that comes under the cyberpunk genre and it is written by Claire Carmichael. The two main issues in the novel, that challenge our understanding of the world, are privacy and power. These two issues are related to cyberpunk as abuse of power and lack of privacy creates a dystopian world.

Privacy is a major issue in our society. Governments can see what websites we use and who we call. They also know what jobs we do and how much money we earn. This is similar to the world of Incognito as the information of the citizens are held by the government but the world of

Incognito provides a terrifying view of the future where only wealthy people have privacy. This is consistently portrayed in the novel through the repetition of the statement ‘privacy is dead unless you’re rich enough to pay for it.’ This reveals that in the future privacy would be very expensive and only a minute amount of people would afford it. Also Incognito shows us a gloomy sight of the future where people will be discontent with lack of privacy they have. This is depicted through a large group called Incognito who believe that ‘every individual has sacred rights to privacy, including the rights to have secrets and the right to hold back information’. This proves that there are a substantials amounts of people disagreeing with the fact that they do not have privacy. Furthermore, Incognito gives us a alarming view of the future where people that work for the government will have more privileges including the privilege to have privacy. This is illustrated in the novel when Aunt Jai told Karr that data lords have ‘their identities classified.’ This reveals that in the future if you are part of the government you would receive more privileges,including more privacy, compared to normal people. Finally, Incognito presents to us a frightening view of the future where privacy is does not exist. This is portrayed in the