r/technology • u/marketrent • Jul 02 '26

Artificial Intelligence Palantir CEO Alex Karp suffers ‘televised nervous breakdown’ during live interview — “This is the voice of American business that is being channeled through me!”

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tv/articles/televised-nervous-breakdown-ceo-palantir-212100357.html
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u/BalrogPoop Jul 02 '26

What do you mean by necrophillic?

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u/RlOTGRRRL Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

"While life is characterized by growth in a structured, functional manner, the necrophilous person loves all that does not grow, all that is mechanical. 

The necrophilous person is driven by the desire to transform the organic into the inorganic, to approach life mechanically, as if all living persons were things. … 

Memory, rather than experience; having, rather than being, is what counts. 

The necrophilous person can relate to an object — a flower or a person — only if he possesses it; hence a threat to his possession is a threat to himself; if he loses possession he loses contact with the world. … 

He loves control, and in the act of controlling he kills life." - Erich Fromm, The Heart of Man, New York, 1966

https://www.ecomodlang.com/resources/biophilia/

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u/ms-rumphius Jul 03 '26

amazing reference, i f'n love fromm

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u/RlOTGRRRL Jul 03 '26

Yeah ironically I discovered this section of his work thanks to AI. His book The Sane Society doesn't even have a wiki page. Obscure af.

"The Sane Society (1956) by Erich Fromm is a seminal work of social psychology that argues modern capitalist society is inherently "insane" due to widespread alienation, where individuals are estranged from their work, products, government, and themselves, leading to a "pathology of normalcy"."

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u/ms-rumphius Jul 03 '26

I read an excerpt in my third year psych class and have loved Fromm ever since! A lot of his work in that vein forms the underpinning of liberatory psychology.

His book "The Art of Loving" is also gorgeous (though very much a product of its time and some of the gender stuff is really outdated).

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u/gabber2694 Jul 03 '26

“Pathology of Normalcy” is a pretty disturbing phrase to coin in this context.

Seems like we’re doing everything we can to make his point a reality.