Brain chip

There were two types of brain chip technology, used by humans circa the year 200,000. The first was a small processing chip implanted at the base of the skull. The other was a receptor chip implanted in the forehead. Upon activation, the forehead opened up,exposing both the chip and the naked living brain of the implantee.

Once the receptor chip was activated, compressed news information as streamed into the person's brain and they became, in effect, part of the software; their brain being the computer. But the brain only processed the information; it did not retain it.

The implantee had the choice of trigger for activation, however in the case of Adam Mitchell, he had the snapping of his fingers (or that of any person nearby) set at his default for him. This would make Adam's life very miserable indeed.