Why is PiMPY3WASH so Darn Pimpy?

I’m fascinated by a washing machine named PiMPY3WASH. As you may have read, the washing machine belongs to Ryan J. Rose, has its own Twitter account, and is programmed to send Ryan a message when it completes a load of wash.

That was fascinating to start with, but what draws my attention now, as of 02/12/09 at 4:30 PM EST, is that PiMPY3WASH has exactly 499 followers, 415 more followers than its creator.

Granted, some of these followers may be Bots, but I’ve looked, and I think the vast majority are us non-bot types.

From casual observation of Mr. Rose, I can see that he’s brainy, funny, and quite clean. He certainly does laundry more than I do.

Why then, does an inanimate object that sends out no message other than “A load of laundry finished washing at: Sat Feb 7 00:48:51 2009” garner more attention than the man behind the machine?


I asked Ryan what he thought about the why of it; his response?

“That’s a difficult question many people have pondered. If you figure out something good, let me know ;-)”

I think it possibly has something to do with being “in” on something, but it’s the what “it” is that I can’t figure out.

Or maybe, folks are waiting to see if one day, PiMPY3WASH suddenly (and possibly of its own volition), will follow them back. Asimovians everywhere wait with bated breath.

Or maybe, just maybe, they’re hoping that PiMPY3WASH will teach them how to make millions through never before tried Internet Marketing “programs".

For me, I follow Mr. Rose @ryanjrose. I can’t wait to see what he does in the future. Other than another load of wash I mean.

If you're one of the followers, leave a comment and let me know why. I'm genuinely interested, and so too it would seem, is Ryan.

Reference articles:

The L.A. Times: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/01/twitter-washing.html and also numerous other blogs and websites.

See it in action: http://www.youtube.com/ryanjrose