This is the site of Joar Alexander Pablo von Arndt. I write about a variety of topics, from coverage of GNU Emacs web browsing, to graphic design and critiques of industrial policy. You can subscribe here. If you enjoy anything written here (or disagree with me) feel free to tell me about it.
My own personal favorites are the following:
Pluribus & Alienation
Pluribus — the newest show by Vince Gilligan (of Breaking Bad fame) — is a show that is refreshingly new in its ideas. After finishing it discussed its themes with some of my friends and acquaintances, almost all of whom had quickly connected the show with artificial intelligence (AI). But for me, continuing on an earlier thought that AI is not extraordinary, it was much more obvious that Pluribus is about “the internet” more-so than AI.
Continue ReadingThree Thoughts On Crypto and NFTs
Writing this in 2026 AD (234 AdR), crypto is solidly in a “winter”. As valuations have fallen, so has the intensity of the debate surrounding the topic. I therefore feel it apt to use this opportunity to briefly write down my thoughts and opinions regarding this otherwise contentious topic.
Continue ReadingExponentials and Artificial Intelligence
The subject of artificial intelligence (AI)1 is one that has become hotly debated in recent years. That the growth of AI’s capabilities has been partly driven by what is becoming increasingly clear financial engineering. These problematic elements has created a stark division of opinions that can generally be subdivided into the following categories:
Continue ReadingThe Qualities of the Totalitarian State
The spirit of the age that we currently finds ourselves in is one of rapid change (and often times decline) in the economic, political, and technological order of the world. Compared to the nineteenth century (and in many regards even the twentieth), when living standards where many times more squalid than today, there was then a sense of progressiveness, of growth and change that — as long as channelled in the correct direction — would be transformed into a new and wonderful world. That spirit does not exist today. Instead we have the idea that we are “sliding” back into the darkest depths of mankind’s history and that we will — posed with some certainty if not clarity — see the return of fascism and of the oppression of the state.
Continue ReadingMaking Beautiful Documents in LaTeX
As a political science student, writing is a daily activity. And like any serious writer who cares about their writing, I care about the presentation and look of my documents. This has evolved, particularly recently, into an interest in typography — the art of formatting and shaping text. The source of this interest was originally my discovery of GNU Emacs’ ability to convert org-mode documents into \(\LaTeX\) ones back in high–school and even today this is still the basis of my process. It was accelerated by my increasing tinkering with this very website, having to design its appearance largely from the ground up.
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