My Blog

Debian have released the next stable version code named “BookWorm”, and so it is time to look at upgrading some of my servers. Now I have form here for things going smoothly. So I started with the server that I use to host a nextcloud instance. I mean what’s the worst that could happen? I’ve only set that server to hold my contacts, my calendar, to sync important files, to automatically backup any photos I take with my phone. It’s not like there is anything important I couldn’t afford to lose.

The other day I saw someone ask if a robot could have a soul. The question was a rhetorical one, and they were making the point that if you ignore the possibility of a sentient robot having a soul, well that was not a good look. The thing is, I’m an atheist, so I don’t believe the robot could have a soul, but apart from the soul I think I largely agree with the point they were trying to make. It’s not about the soul as such, it’s about how you treat others, and specifically how you treat sentient beings not like you. And this got me to thinking, and I ended up thinking some pretty dark thoughts. So here I shall lay out my theory, as an atheist, of what the soul is.

This is a topic that has been on my mind for a while. I don’t claim to have all the answers, and I am in no way qualified to make determinations about the topics that this post is going to touch on. But this is going to be an overview of what I believe on the matter.

It’s been a while.

I don’t have much to say for this post. But 2020 was a hell year for most of us, and despite the hope that is now present thanks to various developments I doubt anything is going to improve substantially for at least a few months. So I just wanted to say to anyone paying attention, we’ve survived 2020, we can get through the first few months of 2021, and lets all hope the light we can now see is the end of the tunnel, and not an oncoming train.

Some time ago I wrote a blog post asking the question “Who are you really?” It didn’t come to any real conclusion, it only expressed the fact that it was a topic I had been thinking about. I didn’t immediately stop thinking about it, but it drifted out of the forefront of my thoughts to the point that I still haven’t really got a good conclusion. But I have been reminded of the topic recently by an article on LWN about issues Debian is facing with key signing. Now the issues that Debian is facing very much reflect the issues I had that led to my previous blog post. How do you trust an identity? What value does that identity hold in itself, and what value can you ascribe to associated details.

In my previous blog post about my shed I teased about a wireless access point, and that it would be the subject of a future blog post. I had intended that to be the next enhancement to my shed that I blogged about. Unfortunately having had a shed for a few weeks now, and stuff that needs somewhere to live (the point of buying the shed in the first place), my wife insisted that the shed should be used for storage. It’s not like I didn’t want this as well, so I have had to re-prioritise my sub-projects within the shed. So once again that will have to wait. This week I have built a set of two shelves.

I’m a Linux systems administrator. This means I am not as skilled at supporting and maintaining windows based systems as I am Linux systems. As such my personal laptop has Debian installed, and I have a number of Debian servers (some hosted at a VPS provider, some at home). I also have a Desktop that I built myself, using high spec components (at the time). As the desktop was intended to be used for gaming I bought a Windows license for it. At the time the intent was to install Debian, and then create a KVM virtual machine to run Windows in. However out of impatience, laziness, and hubris (I could always fix it later right?) I installed windows directly onto the system drive. And now the hinge on my laptop lid is broken. As my blog is split across two git repositories (one private, and one public) and publishing new posts involves a workflow that requires me to use a number of linux based systems this is a sub-optimal state of affairs.

If you’ve been following my blog you’ll know I’ve recently built a new shed. And I’ve installed a solar panel. Well I’ve done some more work on the shed. But not all of the work is related to electricity.

Just a quick update. The solar panel is up on my shed roof.