Untimely meditations

One man's thoughts, observations and rants

Welcome to the personal blog of Joop Beris. I blog about a wide variety of topics, ranging from atheism to information security and lots in between. I welcome feedback on my articles but there are some guidelines. Feel free to share articles you like by using the sharing buttons but please give me credit if you want to share something. Also, check out my privacy policy and other legalese.

Below you’ll find the most recent things I’ve written. Feel free to check them out, leave a comment and share them with others who might be interested.

Latest posts

  • An end to online privacy

    An end to online privacy

    There’s something strange going on in Europe. While we have some of the strongest privacy laws in the world, while we fine companies for violating user rights all while considering the most draconian surveillance laws imaginable. Again, the EU is considering a mass surveillance law that, if implemented, will basically put an end to online…

  • Abolish privacy

    Abolish privacy

    Sometimes you have one of those “What the hell did I just read?” moments. One of those moments for me was earlier this week when someone shared the manifesto “Abolish privacy” with me. People who read my blog, know that I have pretty strong opinions on privacy and I have addressed the topic here many…

  • We use AI wrong

    We use AI wrong

    Generative AI has taken the world by storm. Every company scrambles to add AI to their products, whether it is functional or not. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes AI is a helpful addition but in general, I think we use AI wrong.

  • One-dimensional man

    One-dimensional man

    I recently came across an article which discusses the philosophy of Herbert Marcuse, a German philosopher of the Frankfurt school. Marcuse is surprisingly still very relevant today. In his book The One-Dimensional Man, he argues that modern, industrialized, democratic nations are actually totalitarian in nature. What struck me was the link I saw to the…

  • Fight CSAM, destroy privacy

    Fight CSAM, destroy privacy

    Last year in May, the European Commission proposed new rules to eradicate CSAM, Child Sexual Abuse Material. The sexual abuse of children is a heinous crime and profiting from such material is even worse. It is important to take effective measures against creating and spreading of such material via the internet. The new EC proposal…

  • Do you practice religion?

    Do you practice religion?

    Today’s writing prompt from WordPress asks: “Do you practice religion?” People who follow my blog will know that I have strong opinions about religion and religious beliefs. This writing prompt prompts me to dig up this subject again and share my opinion about it.

Recent comments

  1. I agree. I’d love to see those “facts” too. I’m guessing all of those “facts” will come straight from the…

“There are two different kinds of people in the world: those who want to know, and those who want to believe.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

Philosopher