Reminds me of a short sci-fi story I read years ago.  Don't remember the title or writer.  Jist of it was anyone who logged on to a PC, accessed a certain AI development site, and answered the question "Do you want to know more?' with a yes, soon after committed suicide.  The AI would follow them to whatever pc they were on, anywhere. The survivor of the story retreats to a house, rips out all the wiring (believed carrier waves could be sued to get to him). 

Today, with all the air waves filled with signals, maybe we just fry our brains - slowly?  No AI necessary.

There's idiots who already do that to themselves.  I read recently of two people who died after marathon bouts of on-line gaming.

Beats me how anyone could play an online game for 26 - 28 hours straight... apparently with no food or toilet breaks... any kind of break.  That's totally nucking futs

I've done ten hours IIRC.  I imagine I could've stretched it with some handy beverages or food bars, but my eyes would probably induce a seizure at some point.

I couldn't manage even two hours straight on my PC.  I need to get up and move around every 30 minutes or so, otherwise my joints and muscles seize and I stiffen up too much.... arthrits/fibromyalgia.

I'd think people who die from it are usually the kind of people making money off it.  If they need the money, they'd be more inclined to do stupid things to make it.

I can't really see any other reason to do it.

Obsessive compulsive gamers.

Facebook Farmville. A sure fire way to suck all the Real Life(tm) out of you.

I know a few people who would rather die than lose their crops.

Exactly... the two I read about were apparently obsessed with the games they were playing.

I couldn't become obsessed with anything like that... my body simply wouldn't allow it.

My cure for obsession. Nuttin'! If you obsess over nothing than nothing will come back to do you in instead of something. Works for me.

Ah, but would you see nuttin' coming to do you in?  Just asking cos I sort of figure if something was coming to do you in, you'd be able see it and have a chance to run away. 

Dunno you'd get that chance if Nuttin' was sneakin' around, especially if it was conspiring with other nuttins to quietly do you in while nobody was looking.  Thing is, even if somebody was looking, would they see the nuttins committing the dastardly deed?

I'm thinking not.  Why?  Because I've never seen a nuttin, and when I asked Shaunna she said that she hadn't, either.  We have my daughter Romana and her four children here for a couple of days, and I asked them if they'd ever seen a nuttin.  They all said no, though I think Shaliesha, who's just 11 months, might've been fibbing cos she kept talking to an invisible somebody, who could just as easily have been a nuttin as an imaginary friend.

Anyway, I'm taking no chances with this internet.  The prediction is for 2014, but I'm already wearing my tin foil hat and grounding wire just in case they get started early.  I'm also getting a rubber cushion for my puter chair... no, NOT a whoopee cushion, just something to help insulate me better from all the stray stuff the internet might spew out in my general vicinity.  I'm tellin' ya, orright, ya can't be too careful.

Ah, but you can have too much of nothing. From one of my favorite folk music groups...

That's not a nothing. That's a something. By definition, one cannot see the absence of something. One has to define an expectation of something to be seen and the lack of fulfillment of that expectation is the "nothing". Quite a different thing. The former is direct sensory evidence while the latter requires further integration of other areas of the cerebrum.

Mine as well.