Forget love. Forget religion. Forget art. Learning Python is apparently all I need in order to experience the whole spectrum of human emotion. I’ve rejoiced at the success of squaring a list of numbers, fallen into the pits of despair at my utter inability to write a function that will spell a word backwards, and ascended to the level of a king – nay, a god – at producing a workable Battleship game. In all honesty, though, I’ve had a bit of a time trying to wrap my mind around the idea of coding as literacy. At first, its syntax’s inflexible nature struck me as limiting and frustrating. However, after discussing the abilities of Twitterbots and – especially – examining the educational and political use of games, I’m interested in seeing just how far the possibilities of coding can go. I’d hazard to extend the notion that creativity of the code writer is not necessarily displayed through word choice, syntax, or other aesthetics commonly associated with the language arts, but rather through the execution of procedure and the potential of that procedure.

I feel like the Twitterbot activity really brought out the malicious aspects of my otherwise charming and soft-spoken nature. My bot is currently following only one person – a friend from back home. I’d really like to program the bot to regenerate her posts and add the ultra-mature phrase “in bed” to the end of them – just to assure that my Arizona legacy is never forgotten. My spambot army doesn’t have to stop at merely trolling my unassuming buddies, however; I believe they can be deployed for widespread social purpose. I was fascinated by the brief discussion of Finn Brunton’s Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet, and I’m curious about the possibility of engaging with a massive demographic on an impersonal level to convey a single (usually unwanted) point. As some of you might have noticed, I’m well on my way to becoming an obnoxiously militant vegan. (Joke: “How do you tell a vegan?” “Don’t worry – she’ll tell you.”) I’m wondering if I could create a Twitterbot that could act as my minion as I embark on this quest. Perhaps I could program one to search for statuses and images pertaining to dairy products, establishments like McDonald’s or Five Guys, and the ever-baffling national idolization of bacon and have it respond with classic, lovable phrases like “Your stomach is a graveyard!”