So this is odd. I have yet to install any sensors on the compote tree, but already it has started talking to me.

Cold day than Wednesday. Young. 12mm

— Compote Tree (@CompoteBot) April 5, 2012

To be more specific, something or someone has set up @CompoteBot and started tweeting. It is already surprisingly articulate.

My assumption was that, at the start, the tree would simply spew data and it would be up to me (us?) to translate the data spew into meaningful strings of words. Through conversation and interaction, perhaps, the tree could ‘learn’ like a big baby how to speak and then how to converse. I was assuming this task would take a number of months, if not years.

Yes, yes, I understand that this Twitter account is more than likely someone I know goofing around. This in itself is interesting.

I thought this story – if that’s what it is – would be something only for me and the tree to tell. But already someone else, a stranger who chooses to keep his or her identity hidden, has decided to intrude. Part of me feels delighted. Part of me feels disturbed.

My main worry is that it puts pressure on the *real* tree to speak – and to speak interestingly, entertainingly.

Poor tree. Before it has even become sentient there are people out there putting words in its mouth, people with high expectations of what the tree might become. We do have to entertain the possibility that the tree is quite dumb, with very little memory (recoverable memory) and not a lot to say.

The good news is that there are bees on the tree. Pollination has begun!