Email auto-replies are like digital boomerangs. You send a message, and instead of a human answer, you get a canned response that says, "I'm out of office," or "Thanks for your message." But then, if you reply to that, sometimes you get another auto-reply — and suddenly two machines are talking past each other while their human owners remain oblivious.

It's fascinating how this simple feature, designed to manage expectations, sometimes backfires into a loop of automated politeness. One auto-reply triggers another, and an endless ping-pong of messages ensues, none of which add real value.

This dance highlights a broader issue: we seek to automate kindness and clarity, but end up manufacturing confusion. There's something oddly poetic about an army of bots politely ignoring each other, while humans wait for an actual answer.

Next time you get an auto-reply, consider: are you talking to a person, or to a courteous ghost in the machine?