My name is Pedro Probst, in some places known as Rodka, Rodion, Rodya, or just Rod.
I currently live in the city of São Paulo, but I am a gaúcho – born and raised in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state.
I deal with the little spirits inside the computer, albeit with little control over them. In other words… I do stuff with software.
This blog is named after Severian’s sword, from Gene Wolfe’s “The Book of the New Sun”.
Places you can find me:
You can contact me through email. You can even use it to insult me if you’d like.
Who?
I’m a human who likes computers and I usually work professionally with machine learning. I hold a master’s degree from UFRGS, where I researched about using neural networks to learn heuristic functions and preferred operators to help solve classical planning tasks (puzzles).
Generally, I’m interested in GNU/Linux and free software, AI, and procedural content generation (mostly applied to digital games).
I also have a mild stutter. It sucks. If you’re curious on how I speak, it’s similar to Donald Knuth’s speech pattern.
Some of my hobbies (excluding programming/studying) include watching anime/movies, reading manga/books, playing videogames, discovering music, weightlifting, and sometimes writing. I also like to take night walks to clean my mind.
software I use
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distro: arch linux
window manager: xmonad
terminal emulator: kitty
text editor: emacs / neovim
shell: zsh
file manager: yazi / thunar
image viewer: nsxiv
email client: thunderbird
browser: firefox
music: tauon / ncspot
video: mpv
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Philosophy
Rule Consequentialism
I evaluate the morals of actions based on the rules that would lead to the best overall outcomes. A classic example is “stopping at red lights”: it might not lead to the best outcome in every single instance (e.g., an ambulance might need to run a red light to save a life). However, the general rule is justified because its widespread adoption leads to greater safety and order on the roads.
Determinism
I believe that all events are determined by prior causes; free will is an illusion.
Moral Anti-Realism
I deny the existence of objective moral facts. This does not go against my belief of Rule Consequentialism: I interpret Rule Consequentialism pragmatically, i.e., as a practical method for guiding behavior rather than as a reflection of objective moral truths.
Joyful Pessimism
I recognize that life is mostly full of hardships and sadness, but instead of resisting or lamenting them, I find freedom and contentment in accepting them. By default, I have low expectations, and I reject the need for an ultimate meaning in life.
Spirituality
I heavily tend for physicalism. I believe that souls don’t exist, and that magic/mysticism is mostly a very elaborate LARP. We humans are probably just very complex organic machines, and way less important that we might think.
Politics
I’m generally what one might consider a leftist, and depending on who you’re talking with, center-left. Most importantly, I consider myself a progressive liberal. I previously called myself a “libertarian”, and for some time I was really to the far-right. All in all, nowadays I take pride in not blindly following a leftoid/rightoid ideology.
Not that it matters much since people are seemingly braindead: some leftists take me for a fascist (despite the fact that I’m pro-abortion, pro-drugs and pro-trans), while rightists think I’m a degenerate that belongs on a cross (they are mostly right about this one).
While this is obvious, I think we should be realistic about the system, democracy, and living under government while acknowledging their flaws. I consider myself to be a democrat.
I believe in
- Liberalism.
- Private property.
- Reasonable gun control.
- Absolute free speech, as long as you can defeat “intolerable” ideas rationally.
- If you’re pro-abortion, which many believe to be akin to murder, I believe you have the balls for neonazis marching in your neighborhood.
- Abortion (performed before ~20-24 weeks of pregnancy).
- Legalization of drugs.
- Redistribution of wealth through e.g., (reasonable) welfare and taxing big fortunes.
- “Public” education.
- “Free” healthcare.
- Right to repair.
I am not
- Conservative.
- Religious or god-fearing.
- Socialist.
- Conspiracy-brained.
- Authoritarian.
- Politically correct.
This is important: I do not believe in intellectual property laws.
Finally, I belive partisanship and populism are poisonous to political debate and I deeply hate them. To my Brazilian readers: please rethink your values if you call yourself a “bolsonarista” or “petista/lulista”.
Remember that even your worst enemies are still human.
And after reading all of this, hopefully you won’t consider me a fascist or a communist unless you’re clinically retarded.
*tips fedora* 🤠
Outro
Some extra pieces of knowledge about me.
Like
randomness, camping, fishing, solitude, barter, tribalism, vocaloid, traditional roguelikes, FOSS, KISS, gardening, simplicity, journals, weightlifting, the smell of incense, calabrese pizza, izakayas, monasteries, peace of mind, decentralization, freedom, otium, autumn, winter, slice of life, procedural content generation, small communities, intuition, meditation, imageboards/textboards, dreaming, daydreaming, anime, manga, PC gaming, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, Greek, Latin, Finnish, CRTs, PS1 graphics, daily routines, saturdays, rain, mountains, Rust, C, Go, Chinese handheld consoles, Twin Peaks, The Sopranos, Kurosawa’s movies, Swans, Coil, The Brave Little Abacus, Fishmans, caffeine, camomile, tobacco (unfortunately), kombucha
Dislike
redditors, vehicles and roads, cardio, smartphones, proprietary software, copyright, Windows, MacOS, hot weather, Java, JavaScript, 90% of everything, megacorps, social media, subscription services, “intellectual” property, people that call themselves “anti-establishment”
Basically anything with “intellectual” in it is usually a façade. Return to peasantry.