Sent by Chemgal, who says “It’s often out there, but this SMBC has me stumped”
And the bonus panel:
I’d venture that the advice in the bonus panel is meant as a variation on the (ahem) traditional “Try turning it off and then on again.”
Getting a little help from the IT crowd
Comics I Don't Understand 
I’m guessing the History the human was reading was a remarkably bleak catalogue of human infamy and mass-murder… And perhaps the history was written by the robots, so is weighted to record the casual use and destruction of machines, especially machines that get turned off and on again, especially especially computer and AI machines.
Finding out how humanity ended up as pets for robots gave him depression.
I saw it as the human, after reading out human history, has fully realised the folly of humankind. Ultimately, it was humankind’s ‘ingenuity’ that has led to the rise of the machines and the predicament he is in, which doesn’t seem that great. This blinding light of knowledge has sent him into a depressed catatonia.
Bah. Dvandom beat me to it. Much more succinct as well. Kudos.
“If you can study history without feeling uncomfortable, you’re not studying history.”
We do a lot to try to only focus on the bits of history that make us feel proud of our country, family, ancestors, species, etc. Confronting the other bits for the first time is super-uncomfortable. Up to the point of just withdrawing and not wanting to deal with it and going approximately catatonic.
As far as the “votey” — it’s a joke on “have you tried turning it off and on again”, but actually saying “just kill the human; it’s not worth it.”
To be clear, “bricked” in this context means “to render inoperable without physically breaking”, as in a phone or tablet. The device remains intact but is no more useful than a brick.
I saw it very similarly to dvandom and Stand, but not quite the same. Not really “haha, look what humans have done to themselves”, but still, a despair over the fate that has befallen us given that we once ruled the Earth. Humans are now toys for the robot overlords.
So the same idea of depression over current fate, but I don’t see it as a comment on the path to that fate.
I agree with ianosmond.
Humanity tends to leave a considerable pile of dead bodies in its wake—human and otherwise—and additionally, tends to treat other humans very “inhumanely”.
This particular human’s “drive” has crashed.
Probably cheaper/easier just to replace the whole unit.
I agree with TedD. I further think that the “votey” is merely a jokey acknowledgement that, once you turn a human “off”, you can’t just turn them “on” again…
Zack also offers a way to avoid this future.
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/halt
I didn’t read too deeply into the dialog. Just a reversal of humans “bricking” a computer device.