It is clear now that whatever is driving this flood of future content in inextricably connected to the virus infecting cyborgs in 2041. While human-machine interfaces are something that I have always been interested in, it is not something I write about, and it is certainly not something I would  write about on a marine science and conservation blog. The mere presence of these posts in the Southern Fried Science slipstream reveals their importance.

These are the articles that are too far out of place for this blog to be anything but central to the broader situation:

• How cyborgs are like old wooden ships. Far too wonky and too deeply embedded in the minutiae of politics not to be a sign. The theme, though, is close enough to something I might write to not raise my suspicions on first pass.
• First viruses detected in DNA-based computers. I don’t really write about tech, and certainly not when it has nothing to do with the ocean. This felt profoundly out of place, considering its impact was so small.
• First DNA-based computer virus jumps the cyborg hardware barrier. Now things are getting interesting. These three stories are painting a picture of the future. Whether that picture is being painted for us all or is a message just for me remains to be seen.
• The Cyborg Crisis: new digital virus is fatal to augmented humans. Just published yesterday, this dark look at things to come ties everything together in a neat little package. Although, I am left wondering: What exactly are we supposed to do with this information?

The future, like the present, is dark, yet hopeful, a blend of ocean optimism and the wine dark deep. There are problems from today that are still with us.

• Ocean Conservation Priorities for 2041
• Ocean Kickstarter of the Month: Control ocean plastic with BioBooms. Plastic, always plastic.
• The last ABI3730xl goes offline. Access to hardware and software.
• Remote Protests are visually impressive, but not as effective as public comments. Not all outreach is effective outreach.
• Ramblings of an old codger academic #146: What the graduating student has to look forward to. Academia is broken.

There are wholly new problems that we haven’t even anticipated, like Global Norming.

• Founder effects in a deep-sea invasive: Easter Limpets. 
• What Star Wars can teach us about the ecology of a Type I civilization. 
• Sharks and Global Norming in North Carolina. 

And there are solutions, some terrifying and some wonderful.

• Join the DIT Orbital Observatory program and print your own microsatellites. A whole community of satellite builders contributing to ocean data collection.
• When we ate the rich. Seasteading finally gets a fair shake. Unfortunately, it didn’t go well.

This month is a chance to look back and, somehow, reflect upon our future. A chance to scream “Damn the paradoxes, to hell with the timeline, let’s use the future to mend the presence.” This is our chance. The future laid out before us is not our future, it is the record of a vanished legacy, an archive of futures, past.

Damn the paradoxes! To hell with the timeline! The future is my kraken. It must be released.