Tanstaafl, or Where did Mike go?

When I first read that Mike died, I didn't really think anything more of it than, well, his components were killed and stopped him from being conscious and his coming about was kinda random anyways, so the thought that repairing pieces of him would bring him back was wishful thinking. After all, there was a bigger computer on Earth and it never reached consciousness.

But the view first that Mike's death was thematic in that he may have been the Rebellion's "free lunch" and they paid for him in the end struck me as insightful. Also, that he was properly completing the Rebellion by guiding it then stepping back was a possibility. However, I'm not sure I buy the thought that Mike killed himself under any circumstances. If Mike killed himself that implies that either he did out of his own ideas or that it was a continuation of the whole plan, as devised by the Prof. But if Mike saw the whole enterprise as entertainment, why would he kill himself at the end of it? It's just a game, and one that could lead to more interesting ones.

So, while I like thinking about Mike as a thematic element and such, I'm going to take a more practical view and say that the bombing of half his components took him out, rather than whatever it is computers use for suicide.