It is the Christmas holiday season when many of us will be exchanging seasonal greetings and expressions of goodwill with family and friends.  In the Ubuntu philosophy, a person is a person through other people.  Genuine value arises from our connections to other people.  Life is not about the individual but about friendship, community, respect and compassion.  These interactions are experienced by our consciousness and determine who we are – our identity [see ‘Reflecting on self’ on November 23^rd 2022 or ‘Is there a real you or I?’ on March 6^th, 2019].  It seems unlikely that a computer could experience them in the foreseeable future [see ‘Conversations about engineering over dinner and a haircut’ on February 16^th 2022 or ‘When will you be replaced by a computer’ on November 20^th, 2019] so switch off your laptops and mobile phones and enjoy life.   Happy holidays!

Image: people at Pier Head Liverpool enjoying the River of Light festival.