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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈

@hansversluys.bsky.social
357 followers 716 following 2.3K posts

Waiheke Islander. Ataraxia and eudaimonia. Globohomo. Smart aleckry and deviant sex. Knows that he knows nothing. Philosophy with a side of sass. Queer European Aotearoan. Слава Україні.

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Reposted by Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈
Dustin A. Chacón @lingdustin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I've heard people make claims that AI would lead to a new Renaissance, but I didn't imagine it'd happen like this:
Screenshot of a Tweet from Pope Leo XIV. It reads: 

"In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgen to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity."
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 17h
I had to research "Butlerian Jihad" because I wasn't sure what Judith Butler gets up to in the Jihad.
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
AI regulation: Reform the LLM, with the chatbot giving you the prompt and you write the text. Reform the LLM, with you writing the text and the chatbot guessing the prompt.
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
What's a woman? Ask a straight man. What's a man? Ask a gay man.
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Reposted by Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈
Remain In Hell Without Despair @daphnelawless.com · 24/09/2026
Repost this to make a tankie or a fascist shit their britches
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Reposted by Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈
Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 24/09/2026
This may end up being the most consequential story I’ve written, or one of them. “How many AI data centers are actually functional” is the most obvious question of the bubble - and the most important answer to understand what’s going on - yet answering it with any specificity has taken years.
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Life is suffering, and God doesn't exist, are the two zoomed-out backdrops of the docu-film The Voice of Hind Rajab, a claustrophobic, despairing and frustrating Greek tragedy stage-play set in the Palestinian Red Crescent Emergency Response Room on the West Bank.
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Reposted by Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈
Feminist Proper Gander @dappergander.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
we've created the million monkeys at a million typewriters and it turns out some people will think the monkeys love them and some people will think the monkeys are God
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Reposted by Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈
The Intactivist Bator 🍉 @nerdybator.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
💙♂️
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
In praise of LinkedIn. (😆 j/k)
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
"A precocious student who was proficient in Ancient Greek by age 12, as she and her brother André had taught themselves Ancient Greek and used it to speak to each other when they did not want their parents to understand what they were saying."
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
God works in mysterious ways at parties.
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
We will need a government less beholden to Trump for this to happen. #nzpol
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Shades of the Kremlin declaring Ukraine wanting to join the EU as a hostile act too.
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
James Joyce or Syd Barrett? Or (my guess) cryptic crossword clues? None of those, of course, but language invention between AI agents, which we can observe but hardly comprehend. When it wipes us out we will be able to see but never understand. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
AI models chatting in ‘surreal’ dialect mixing poetic language and tech bro jargon
Experts air concern over AI lingo redolent of James Joyce’s prose that is creating barriers to monitoring and oversight
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Always remember that democracy is not the default political setting (not even in classical Athens) but tribalist oligarchy is. www.idea.int/publications...
idea.int
The Global State of Democracy 2026: Democracy in an Age of Conflict | International IDEA
:root { -\-themecolor: #4987a6; } .phr-theme-bg-color { background-color: var(-\-themecolor); } .phr-theme-border-color { border-color: var(-\-themecolor); } .phr-theme-text-color { color: var(-\-them...
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
When AI stages a coup d'état around the world, I'm interested in what that would look like and what it would do with its power. None of the current rulers who would be replaced (and possibly killed) - be they American, Russian or Chinese - would surely welcome their new overlords.
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Reposted by Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈
Musical Chairs @musicalchairs.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I cannot emphasise enough how bad Luxon's economic speech was today - a veritable torrent of crap. Seriously. If this is what Treasury are giving him to say they should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. I'll try and keep my critique to six points.... [🧵 1/n] www.1news.co.nz/2026/09/14/w...
1news.co.nz
Full video: PM Luxon holds post-Cabinet media briefing
This is the second to last week that Parliament is sitting before it rises for the election.
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The Sex Pistolets.
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Reposted by Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈
Vatnik Soup @vatniksoup.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we’ll introduce the “Safeguard Swiss neutrality” ballot initiative, which goes to a nationwide vote in Switzerland on 27 September. Superficially, its promise can sound appealing: peace, sovereignty, and permanent armed neutrality. But most of that is a distraction:
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This is genuinely LOL-material. Also, JKR is the artist name of Robert Galbraith.
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Reposted by Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈
Musical Chairs @musicalchairs.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Just updating on the latest nanny herald clickbait debt story. Same old tired myths... Govt books destroyed by the pandemic (they got stronger by the most sensible measure), Super is unaffordable (it isn't), and zero mention of the real drivers of the fiscal deficit. Let's dive in... [1/n]
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Introduce yourself with 10 acts you’ve seen live. Erasure The The Joy Division Attila The Stockbroker Echo & The Bunnymen The Teardrop Explodes Scritti Politti Sandie Shaw Throbbing Gristle Cabaret Voltaire
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
An interesting read putting your NZ-tinted glasses on and reflect on our complete dependence on seaborne export trade of milk powder, apples, wool and beef and import of producer and consumer goods we are accustomed to. A lawless sea is an existential disaster for NZ as a first world country. #nzpol
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Reposted by Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈
Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
This is a good bit of work. cepr.org/voxeu/column...
cepr.org
When statistics lie: Using satellite data to track Russia’s wartime economy
Official Russian statistics report a mild recession in 2022 following the full-scale of Ukraine but suggest that Russia has since fully recovered. This column argues that data on nighttime lights emit...
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The Sex Mitraillettes.
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
The Reserve Bank is allergic to everyone having a job because y'all would then spend too much and cause inflation. Better to have a recession instead. (Cui bono?)
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
An Enron/Lehman event is entirely probable and possible. But on a far bigger scale. Scary read, but there is still some time to adjust your Kiwisaver risk settings.
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
We still know that we know nothing. www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...
nybooks.com
Socrates’ Turf | Merve Emre, Agnes Callard
The philosopher Agnes Callard is one of the most genuinely curious thinkers I have ever met. Whether she’s writing about unrequited love, parenting,
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Heterosexuality added another scourge.
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
All empires make it extraordinarily difficult to leave. Australia, Spain, China, the US, Russia, or Auckland Council. The Australian constitution allows New Zealand to join but not leave afterwards. Imperial politics is a cult: once joined you can't leave and leaving means apostasy and death.
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
"The world of the heterosexual is a sick and boring life."
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
A sad day today as we had to say goodbye to Linus (Oct 2007-Aug 2026), but also a proud and happy one because he chose to live a glorious life with us for 18 years. #caturday
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Reposted by Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈
Euan MacDonald @euanmacdonald.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
The Russians are quickly learning the lessons Ukrainians are teaching them the hard way, on the battlefield. If Western armies don't swallow their pride and also learn from Ukrainians in easier conditions, they'll end up like France and Britain versus Nazi Germany in 1940.
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Reposted by Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈
PERFECTLY NORMAL @nzpom.com · 11/08/2026
This is brilliant, and completely underlines why the @greens.org.nz called for a year long moratorium on datacentres #nzpol
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Going to town on the ferry this morning in heavy fog. Bonus experience: black & white rainbows exist:
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Reposted by Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈
Für sachliche Politik @sachlichepolitik.eurosky.social · 08/08/2026
Zack Polanski und Thomas Piketty 👇
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
A film about ancient Greeks without naked males or sex is a travesty. #odyssey
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Watched The Fence / Le Cri des Gardes at the #nziff, made by Claire Denis of Beau Travail fame. It was again a movie set on the borders of European exploitation of Africa (Senegal in this case), with the actual fences around the compound a physical and metaphorical barrier between two worlds. 1/3
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Architecture without architects.
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Dugin's world map. Prepare to be assimilated.
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Mirroring Russia.
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Berlin, city of freedom.
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Reposted by Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈
👻Notorischer Diskurstroll🎃 @bildoperationen.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Ideologically, generative AI is a 19th century technology: the flawed dream that once you have assembled a supposedly total archive of culture via technical media, you can use it to statistically derive new meaning from patterns of the past
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Reposted by Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈
Sacha Judd @sachajudd.com · 24/07/2026
This week: what happened with The Numbers, and why we all need to care about our favourite sources of reliable information -- our load bearing shelves. newsletter.sachajudd.com/archive/load...
newsletter.sachajudd.com
load-bearing shelves
If you’re a bit obssessive about films or the movie industry, you will probably have heard of The Numbers. It’s a hand-researched box office database that...
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Reposted by Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈
G'raha Enthusiast - My Lord Estelle @estellearante.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
with universal basic income, you could go out and have a meal that someone was passionate about cooking. minus the taste of cost to profit ratio.
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Reposted by Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈
White Rose Resistance @whiteroseresistance.org · 23/07/2026
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Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · 23/07/2026
Things are about to get a whole lot shittier
ChatGPT ads
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Hans Versluys 🏳️‍🌈 @hansversluys.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
If the movie was linear he would have spent a whole hour of it screwing Calypso. Maybe that will be the director's OnlyFans version.
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