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Basically the setting is a futuristic earth, and they have brain implants that can give people access to an advanced form of something like google glasses. They can detect whether or not people have good or bad intentions toward you, highlighting in green or red. They are used by the military for tactical advantage, and normal people use them for browsing, driving, and such. They also have a built in kill switch that only the inventor knows about, and he is gathering information to use to kill people who meet a certain profile. I believe this profile was people who were either greedy or some other quality the inventor deemed bad.

Somehow its found out, and some people (I think like FBI agents) try to stop him, and end up getting help from a hacker who helps them change the filter to something that exactly fits the inventor and it ends up killing the inventor and only a few others.

I read it within the past 5 years, but it wasn't a new book at the time. I think it had been out for a few years when I read it, so I would guess the book is probably no more than about 7 years old.

I don't really remember the cover.

More info/clarifications: By futuristic Earth, it is basically just a more technologically advanced Earth, so maybe like 50 years into the future or something. The implants can read brain waves and use an algorithm to predict behavior and personality traits. Military use it to detect whether people are hostile or not, and ordinary people use it to browse the web, gps, etc. The inventor either was a hacker, or worked with a hacker to develop the algorithm, and the people trying to stop the kill switch from going off reach out to that hackers rival.

The hacker that helps them stop the kill switch says the only way to get a meeting with the person responsible is for him to deface the FBI website with porn or something like that. That act will outdo the other hackers greatest achievement and force the other hacker to give a trophy of some sort.

I remembered another bit from the story. Maybe it will help identify the book. These implants/chips had to be surgically implanted, in the head, and they seemed to integrate with the optic nerve, so that images were able to be projected onto their vision, and they could navigate on this overlayed visual by looking. One person was killed when the inventor took advantage of this, and caused the device to block out the input from the eyes and replace it with an incorrect landscape while the person was driving. This caused the driver to accidentally drive off the road, because he saw a straight road where it actually made a turn.

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  • Can you see if any of these match your criteria?
    – Möoz
    Jan 14, 2016 at 0:08
  • @Mooz I don't think any of those are it. I added some more info to maybe help narrow it down. I'll keep racking my brain to try and come up with more info.
    – user55714
    Jan 14, 2016 at 0:20
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    do you remember any of the names of the charcters
    – Sim-
    Jan 17, 2016 at 19:02
  • @Sim- no, i can't remember any names of the characters.
    – user55714
    Jan 18, 2016 at 17:10
  • It doesn't quite match, but I'm reminded to (possibly NSFW) smbc-comics.com/?id=2286 in the Saturaday Morning Breakfast Cereal comics (strip dated 2001). In that strip, people wear helmets that show them what they should or should not do, turning the world into a game where they can score points and unlock achievement badges. The strip shows that the game encourages killing people who doubt the system.
    – b_jonas
    Jan 20, 2016 at 10:36

3 Answers 3

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Amped a novel by Daniel H. Wilson seems to fit some of your criteria.

  • It was published in 2012
    • Within the ~5 year range
  • Story is centred around people who have brain implants
    • Implanted people are called "Amps"
  • The implants have a "very dangerous secret"
  • Civilians used the implants to help with things like seizures
  • The Military uses it for added strength and abilities
  • Features a specialised Military force
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    this is not quite it, but it did help me remember a few more things about the book. ill update the question with the new info
    – user55714
    Jan 14, 2016 at 0:07
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The Utopia Experiment (Book 10 of the Covert-One sereies) by Kyle Mills/Robert Ludlum.

With U.S. intelligence agencies wracked by internal power struggles and paralyzed by bureaucracy, the president has been forced to establish his own clandestine group--Covert-One. It's activated only as a last resort, when the threat is on a global scale and time is running out.

When Dresner Industries unveils the Merge, a device that is destined to revolutionize the world and make the personal computer and smartphone obsolete, Covert-One operative Colonel Jon Smith is assigned to assess its military potential. He discovers that enhanced vision, real-time battlefield displays, unbreakable security, and near-perfect marksmanship are only the beginning of a technology that will change the face of warfare forever--and one that must be kept out of the hands of America's enemies at all costs.

Meanwhile, in the mountains of Afghanistan, CIA operative Randi Russell encounters an entire village of murdered Afghans--all equipped with enhanced Merge technology that even the Agency didn't know existed. As Smith and Russell delve into the circumstances surrounding the Afghans' deaths, they're quickly blocked by someone who seems to have access to the highest levels of the military--a person that even the president knows nothing about.

Is the Merge really as secure as its creator claims? And what secrets about its development is the Pentagon so desperate to hide? Smith and Russell are determined to learn the truth. But they may pay for it with their lives.

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    Can you elaborate on this answer? Adding additional details (quotes, plot) could be helpful, both for the person who asked the question and later readers.
    – Adamant
    Nov 28, 2016 at 7:12
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Stargate SG-1 - s7e5 - "Revisions"

Originally aired July 11, 2003

The team gates to a climate-controlled environment amidst a toxic wasteland, whose people are all linked to a central computer via a U-shaped device attached to their left temple. The environment protecting people from the wasteland is failing, and as the power level drops, The Link shrinks the dome and kills excess people by making them leave the protected area. To keep the people level-headed during this process, all memories of the people who departed are removed from their minds.


I know Stargate isn't a book but it fits some of your criteria.

  • Stargate is/was a popular show, you're very likely to have seen a rerun in the past 5 years.
  • All surviving inhabitants of the planet are connected to The Link, a computer which provides each individual with a library of knowledge, via a device attached to their left temple.
  • The Link maintains the town and the illusion of a normal world within the confines of a dome.

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