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Steffen Hope

@hopesteffen.bsky.social

2.7K followers 750 following 5.1K posts

Norwegian medievalist, bibliophile, music lover and art enthusiast. [Header: Valenciennes - BM - ms. 0320, f.120v]

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · Dec 16

Some months ago, a collection of articles edited by Grzegorz Pac, myself, &Jón Viðar Sigurðsson was published by Brepols. The book is in open access, & can be found here: www.brepols.net/products/IS-....

Cover of the book, which features a medieval illumination. The illumination depicts King Wenceslas carrying a bowl to some nobles seated at a table. Behind the king, the archangel Michael appears, holding a spear in his left hand, and placing his right hand on Wenceslas' head in benediction. Wenceslas points backwards to the angel.

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 14h

For many Christians, it is equally difficult to see Antichrist in the rich as it is to se Christ in the maimed & wounded, & that's partly why we are where we are.

Reposted by Steffen Hope

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 17h

There's still time to sign up for my Thursday talk. Teaching the Abjad numerals while going on interesting tangents about astrolabes, how Indian numerals changed Arab mathematics, and how disinformation is far older than the internet.

www.arabbritishcentre.org.uk/whatson/when...

When Letters Were Numbers: Rediscovering the Abjad Numerals with Joumana Medlej - The Arab British Centre

In this online talk, Joumana Medlej shares her research into this forgotten aspect of Arabic writing history, that is also known as hisāb al-jummal. She tells the story of the Abjad numerals — their o...

www.arabbritishcentre.org.uk

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 18h

That makes sense to me. Thanks to some autistic friends, I have come to understand how this can be used as a tool for navigating social conventions & expectations that seem irrational to them. But for non-autistic men, I think the wingman syndrome is a key motivator.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 18h

Well put! I think there has to be a balance between acknowledging the basic shared humanity that unites us to past human beings & the specific historical contexts that prevent us from understand how past human beings navigated their own times. Upending that balance is disastrous.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 18h

I would love to see this kind of data breakdown. I suspect that it is overwhelmingly a male practice, & that it is fuelled by the concept of the wingman, & that they want a digital Barney Stinson at their fingertips.

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 18h

Eg likar biletbruken her! Og eg føler at det illustrerer ganske godt kvifor ein skal halde seg langt unna ChatGPT. (Her skal eg innrømme at eg har så å seie null erfaring med Reddit.)

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 19h

Det set jo ting i eit frykteleg perspektiv.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 19h

Because I am a ridiculously nostalgic person, today I went on a pilgrimage to my local bakery from when I lived in Odense, which is situated on the other side of town from where I am staying. Despite some remodelling of the shop, the flavours brought me straight back to some very happy memories.

A table covered with the following items: a book on the medieval cult of saints, a plate with a sesame-seed bun and a Danish, a cup of tea, a decorative plastic miniature Halloween pumpkin, and a napkin holder.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 19h

Men altso, kva er det folk driv med? Eg ser lett føre meg korleis ein slik figur som dette vil late kvart minste aspekt av eit mellom-menneskeleg forhold verte filtra gjennom kunstig intelligens.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

Ah, that fits very well with my own suspicions. Thank you!

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

Interesting! What is the overlap between the two approaches?

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

I suspect that there are many self-identifying Effective Altruists who approach these tenets very differently, but from what I understand I can see how this philosophical framework can allow people to justify avoiding to help people now, arguing instead that their actions will reap future fruit.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

(And because this is the Internet, I want to clarify that I am not asking for anyone to explain Effective Altruism to me, but I am interested in hearing from others whether this idea resonates with their own experiences.)

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

I am quite far from the point of understanding Effective Altruism as an ideology, but it appears to me that there is something about it which appeals to people who want to make grand gestures but who also consider most of their contemporaries as undeserving. Is this wildly off the mark?

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

Exactly. It is such an astounding display of cruelty masked as obtuseness that it makes my blood boil.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

When it comes to antagonists with unsubtle names, I thought Jean Vilain from The Expendables 2 was a top contender. But then I learned about Professor Adolfo Verybad from the Italian Western series Zagor. (He is, indeed, very bad.)

[Zagor no.680]

Bottom panel from a comic book page, showing the inside of a tent. On the left-hand side, a black-haired man with a small moustache is pointing towards a man seated in front of him. This other man is sitting by a table, glass in one hand and bottle in the other. The sitting man has a black coat, black hair, black, unruly beard, and a wild, demoniacal look in his eyes. The standing man is saying "The professor Adolfo Verybad", while the professor responds with "Hello, Cico".

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

Ah, brilliant, thank you!

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 1d

I suspect these are the same people who will soon demand that the few surviving Palestinians should be grateful. I have nothing polite to say to these abusive shits.

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Reposted by Steffen Hope

Isabel Mellén @isamellen.bsky.social · 1d

¡Regresamooooooooooos! 😃😃😃😃

Divulvadoras de la historia @divulvadoras.bsky.social · 2d

¡Regresamos una temporada más y lo queremos hacer volviendo al origen!

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 2d

Cromulent.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 2d

Two minds, one thought, to use an old Scandinavian saying.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 2d

This is a copy of the pamphlet in question, the first book to be printed in Scandinavia, which became a bestseller due to a climate of fear & sensationalism. The copy in the picture is currently housed in Museum Odense.

An open incunable pamphlet in a museum glass case.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 2d

Haha, I would happily go back to the fjords if that meant that the rest of my namesakes in this world would behave decently. But there are simply too many of us, & some are quite nasty. It is quite telling that you seem to have understood immediately whom I had in mind.

Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 2d

A similar pattern can be seen in the history of printing in Scandinavia. In 1482, Johann Snell was commissioned to print the Odense Breviary, but before finishing this work he printed De obsidione et bello Rhodiano, on the siege of Rhodes, which was a pamphlet against the Turks.

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 2d

People think the first thing Gutenberg printed was the Bible. This is false. The first things he printed were a political prophecy, propaganda about the Turks’ threat to Christendom, & a popular school text. If you want a parallel to AI, that’s it: making $ from conspiracies, racism, & school slop.

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 2d

really nice piece on this btw from @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2025/...

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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 2d

In the current climate, I am torn between being relieved that I'm not the worst human being among my namesakes, & wishing that I were, simply because then things wouldn't be so abysmally bad for us.

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