Mind-blowing

Mind-blowing, a 45,000-word thriller (mixing technology and politics) about brain reconditioning, mind-control, and cognitive resetting, explores the domain of developing a successful BMI (brain-machine interface) to not only increase the thinking, storing, and problem-solving capacity of the human brain but also use technology to unlearn false ideas and reform thinking to promote a healthy (read pliant) society.
Set in the extremist-infested environment of Pakistan, three protagonists operate in isolation to understand, exploit, and control the cognitive process. Before they come together, one of them, who has successfully managed the social media of a political party to win an election, is pushed by his circumstances to commit suicide. The other two-a professor researching cognitive processes and an ex-Silicon Valley AI/IT expert leading a project to create a brain-machine interface by inserting a chip under the human skull-meet briefly to forge a collaboration. Ultimately, both of them have to flee the country under the threat of extremists who brand their work on mind-control as a conspiracy against Islam to control Muslims and against Pakistan to deprive it of nuclear weapons. A lot happens, including countless deaths in the bloody violence by extremists, before 'Project Mind-blowing' is successfully executed.
On the face of it, Mind-blowing shows the sunny side, but as always, there is a downside to manipulating the BMI technology, as it can be employed for controlling humans and using them as pawns in ideological wars, resulting in an abysmal situation that may hasten the end of mankind. It seems quite scary, and we cannot simply sit back and let things go about at their normal pace.