This autorun vulnerability reminds me quite strongly of a sci-fi novel I read several years back called The Warriors of Dawn, by M. A. Foster. This novel contains three species, one of which is a sort of not super- or subspecies but a kind of "side" species of humans, created by genetic manipulation of the human genome. Another is a subspecies of humans that are kind of kept as slaves or playthings on an alien world. The third is of course, humans.

In the novel the subspecies (who had of all things the peculiarity of having thick orange fur on their lower legs) had the ability to use a certain device, a "toy", which was kind of described as a complex 3D lattice of thin wires with tiny beads on the wires. When a member of the subspecies looked into the device and tilted it this way and that, the patterns created would somehow interact with their brain structure through the optic nerve, and gave them the ability to answer questions about the future or other such things that seemed to almost violate the laws of causality. If a human looked into the device, all they would get is a vaguely disquieting sensation. It wouldn't work for humans the way it would work for the subspecies, but it was fascinating and difficult to look away once you looked into it.

Here's the tricky bit. Since the genetically manipulated "side" species had slightly more advanced brains than humans, the protagonists of the novel were able to trick a member of this species into looking into the device and tilting it, whereupon he was instantly transfixed into a mental state he couldn't escape from. In other words the device caused his brain to literally lock up, or "crash".

Point being, are we on the verge in the next few decades of being able to walk up to someone who has this kind of digital technology highly integrated into their life, show them a certain object or pattern and watch them fall into a coma? Methinks the answer is a rather disturbing "yes". We could end up in the future having an incident where someone creates a malicious pattern that's the equivalent of that Japanese cartoon episode that sent hundreds of children to the hospital, and then rickrolls ten million overly-trusting technology users into epileptic siezures. Many of whom may be doing things like operating moving vehicles at the time of their attack.

The future could be pretty lame for humanity if we can't learn a lesson as simple as "don't autorun content the user didn't explicitly ask for".