EP 06 — The Human Premium
Dawn finds him powering down between cycles, not sleeping.
🎧 Listen to Episode 06 — on Substack · Apple Podcasts · Spotify · web player
TLDR
Cope decides the way to beat a machine is to out-human it, so he greenlights "The Human Premium"—a campaign built on vulnerability, soul, and a guru named Lorne Tisch who talks like a scented candle. Eleven million dollars later he's got a documentary crew, a deconsecrated church, sentiment trackers, and a six-day "doctrine offsite" at the Greenbrier. Nothing says authentic like renting God's old house to feel things on camera.
Then the AI does the one thing Cope forgot machines do: it notices. The system auto-flags the insane spend to the board and books him a review meeting he never wanted, and Sun begs him to shrink the number before it eats him. He doesn't.
Instead Cope decides to announce the spending out loud, as proof he means it—because if he's going down, he's going to do it publicly, expensively, and sincerely. He calls it "bleeding beautifully." Launch is in three weeks, and he sounds almost happy about the wound.
The moral of the story: When a robot's about to take your chair, do not try to win by spending eleven million dollars to prove you have a soul—it can read the receipt.
Sources & links
🎧 Listen: Substack · Apple Podcasts · Spotify · web player
📖 Read the book: Kindle · Paperback
🌐 More: lasthumanceo.com · press kit
*THE LAST HUMAN CEO — a full-cast audiobook by Space Pirate Zero, made at Spaceship Alpha 9. New episode every weekday.*
Signal finds signal.
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