Perhaps under the conditions of computerized society, the assumption that literature is the highest form of human language may seem obsolete. There is no Turing-test for literature. But before we hasten to the conclusion that the introduction of computers turns “even the most intelligent poetry into myth or anecdote,” as Kittler mocks, the fact remains that the new systems are used not only for the technical documentation of airplane construction and open-heart surgery, but also for the writing of poetry. Of course historically (and systematically), the first electronic texts were computer programs, and without them there could be no hypertext. But there is also plenty of serious work on literary software. In 1962, the software “Auto-Beatnik” was introduced by R.M. Worthy in Horizon Magazine, “Auto-Poet” and “Scansion Machine” followed, and in 1984, the Scientific American reported on “Racter,” the first prose generator. It uses a vocabulary database to generate complex, grammatically correct sentences. By now, numerous such programs are available on the Internet; among the best known are “Eliza,” imitating a psychiatric conversation, and sentence generators like “Prose.” Many commercial websites now use customer service bots that interact with visitors handling standard queries and complaints. Search engines parse natural language to better determine the exact nature of your question. A program, it turns out, is just a text that generates text.