Concept: Cephalopod Power Shift
It’s not-too-many years in the future. Sea levels have risen catastrophically. Breathable air is tainted by dangerous atmospheric components, and ultraviolet light streams through a hopelessly depleted ozone at unprecedented rates. Not all the humans could make it out to the space colonies.
Who’s ready for this? Not humans.
Who’s basking in their time to shine? Cephalopods.
Land is scarce. Humans are out on the water, and they need navigation and water power, but electricity is donezo and all the libraries where we could learn how to reemploy ancient sailing techniques are underwater. But guess who’s had a complex language of hunting and navigation developed for years!! Whales, dolphins, and porpoises!! So we bring them resources and gifts from land, and do shit they can’t do without thumbs in order to earn their trust, exchanging these services for pod protection, access to fish they catch in the deep, and assistance with transportation across the large watery swaths of our former lands. But soon our inadequacy for this environment makes it clear- the cephalopods are our superiors. They are the apex species group now. We live at their whim. But at least we live.
I assume at some point we’ll need to build some shelters under the water Gungan City-style so we can filter out the atmosphere, UV rays, and heat. And here’s the kicker: We can add on a bubble exposed almost entirely to the open ocean, a small “pool of air” in which humans can do a bunch of dumb tricks. The cephalopods see our dexterity and hints of intelligence, and it increases their love for us as a species. Instead of hunting us or indifferently letting us perish, they organize to provide for our global wellbeing, even if those of us representing humanity in the underwater bubble are miserable. One of them coaches us on which tricks most enthrall their cephalopod peers, and the better we perform, the more food is dropped at the entrance to the bubble.
We later gain the ability to translate the calls, clicks, and songs of our underwater mammalian friends/overlords. We discover the name they have for this exhibition:
Land World
The End
