# The Singularity Is a Story, Not a Prison: My Philosophy Portal Interview with Cadell Last

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/singularity-fm-1654370/the-singularity-is-a-story-not-a-prison-my-philosophy-portal-interview-with-cadell-last
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/singularity-fm-1654370/the-singularity-is-a-story-not-a-prison-my-philosophy-portal-interview-with-cadell-last.md
Podcast: [Singularity.FM](https://stenobird.com/podcast/singularity-fm-1654370)
Published: 2026-07-02T19:36:12+00:00
Episode link: https://soundcloud.com/singularity1on1/the-singularity-is-a-story
Audio file: https://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/2352069104-singularity1on1-the-singularity-is-a-story.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/singularity-fm-1654370/episodes/the-singularity-is-a-story-not-a-prison-my-philosophy-portal-interview-with-cadell-last
Duration seconds: 5167

## Resource

After 300+ interviews on Singularity.FM, it felt strange to sit on the other side of the mic. But when Cadell Last invited me onto Philosophy Portal, saying no was never an option. He asks the questions that go all the way down, and this time he put me in the hot seat. Here is the core of it: the singularity is a story, not a prison. Ray Kurzweil's six epochs converge on a single storyline where the universe wakes up. That is creationism in scientific clothing. Silicon Valley's claim that technology is inevitable and unstoppable is not a prediction, it's a prison. And I refuse to live in it, because I grew up behind the Iron Curtain and watched the same technology build socialism, democracy, and fascism. The big choices were never technological. They were ethical, which is to say political. In this conversation with Cadell Last we cover: The two books that blew my mind in 2006: Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near and Stross's Accelerando Why we are wired for story, not facts How a Bulgarian army nickname became "Socrates," and why it started as an insult 300 resumes, one failed interview, and the crazy thought that started Singularity Weblog Why my podcast was never about technology The Context Effect: why AI processes data but has to borrow its context from us Karl Schroeder's camera lens that shattered my single-model worldview Ada Palmer on why you cannot invent a golden age without first inventing a dark age Gramsci's time of monsters, and Frank Herbert's warning that a certain future is a prison The line that captures all of it: "The future is not a prediction, it's a story. You can be a spectator, or you can get your hands dirty and become the author of your own story, as an individual and, together, as a species." This interview is pre-course content for Singular…

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