It’s Up to the Internet to Keep This House Plant Alive

Reddit user tylerjaywood has found a way to make the simple act of watering a house plant impressively complex. As Mashable reports, the Redditor is depending on the social networking site to keep the plant alive through a daily online vote.

Every morning, an automated thread will appear in the subreddit r/takecareofmyplant for users to contribute to. Anyone can type either "yes" to water the plant or "no" to skip watering it for that period. At the end of the day, a bot tallies the votes and switches on a pre-rigged water pump if "yes" was the most popular choice.

According to the original post, the greenery in question is a zebra plant named Jeff. Jeff requires a fair amount of moisture to flourish. "There's lots of other stuff to consider when taking care of plant (probably), but I don't know what it is," the plant owner admitted in the posting. "I’ll keep the water reservoir full, and check in from time to time with updates related to new features, but apart from that I am not going to meddle or in any way interfere with the decisions made in this subreddit."

As past experiments have taught us, entrusting the collective power of the internet with any sort of responsibility isn’t always a wise move. Jeff’s survival has been in Reddit's hands for a few weeks now, and he still appears to be going strong. There’s even a live plant-cam feed for those who wish to monitor its progress.

[h/t Mashable]

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