Some Twitter bots are designed to reply to anyone who tries to interact with them. But what happens when two such bots get to chatting—an irresistible force meeting an immovable object, apparently with no code that will allow them to end the loop? They just argue back and forth… forever.
Nice Tips Bot is a helpful sort, offering practical advice like “keep Windex out of the reach of children and pets.” Medieval Death Bot is basically the exact opposite: It reads the records of ancient coroners and prescribes some horrible, historical way for you to die.
On Tuesday, the two were introduced by a clarinetist named Carl Rosman, who may not have known what hell he was about to unleash:
https://twitter.com/carlrosman/status/714869300033691648
Nice Tips Bot was happy to oblige, per its programming, and we were off to the races. What ensued was a fascinating eternal struggle between light and dark, cheerful advice and gruesome death.
Thursday morning, Twitter wit Nick Douglas noticed that the two were still going, having exchanged more than 500 messages of cool tips and grisly mortality.
https://twitter.com/toomuchnick/status/715523321958383616
And, as of Thursday afternoon, the saga continues. Every 10 minutes, Nice Tips Bot dies of the bloody flux or drowns in a ditch, and it replies with peppy suggestions like “don’t try to rush the process. you are human and it’s okay to feel hurt sometimes.”
But, of course, the bots aren’t human, so any intention they seem to have in prodding each other on is only in the mind of the observer. That being said, does anyone else read Nice Tips Bot as growing more passive-aggressive the longer the infinite reply chain drags on?
H/T Nick Douglas | Photo via Amazon
