According to HousePlantsExpert.com (or possibly HousePlantSexpert.com), the zebra plant is a beautiful addition to your home, well-suited for indoor growth. The site also notes that it’s quite temperamental and can lose its leaves if not given the proper care.
Well, a man named Tyler Wood decided he couldn’t handle the responsibility—so instead he’s handed control over his own zebra plant to the internet. He began by coding a bot that interacts with a subreddit made just for this experiment. Every day, the bot creates a post asking whether or not the plant should be watered. Voting takes place from 8am to 6pm. At 6pm, the votes are automatically calculated. If a majority of redditors vote “yes,” a pump is switched on automatically and the plant is watered.
Wood even has a live cam running 24/7 so you can see how the plant is doing. So far, the internet has yet to kill it.
The plant at 3:30pm, June 14th
Screengrab via nest
Wood also takes “Feature Requests,” in which people can ask questions and make suggestions. In the first few days of the project, people asked:
- for control of a grow light
- for a technical diagram of how the system works
- that the plant be named “Jeff”
Since the project began on June 10, the number of voters has increased from just two for the first vote (2 Yes – 0 No) to 260 just three days later (138 Yes – 122 No), and the plant has been watered each of the first four days. But will it be watered again today? That, my friend, is up to you.