Abstract: The ocean covers 71% of Earth’s surface, contains 97% of its water, and is home to the majority of its life. It regulates climate, produces half the planet’s oxygen, and has been the continuous context for biological evolution for over 3.5 billion years. Yet the dominant human framing of the ocean is overwhelmingly extractive—a source of resources, a sink for waste, a medium for transport. The ocean is understood by what we take from it, what we dump into it, and what we sail across it.
Through the lens of the Care primitive—defined as the directional impetus for the singular to exist in harmony with the whole that allows it to exist [1]—this paper identifies a series of relational phenomena in marine systems that are systematically overlooked by human observation. These include: (1) the viral shunt as a planetary-scale nutrient distribution system; (2) marine fungi as the ocean’s mycelial infrastructure; (3) coral symbiosis as a diagnostic of relational health; (4) marine microbiomes as the immune system of the seas; and (5) the ocean itself as an ancient, chemically mediated communication network.
We argue that humans miss these phenomena not because they are hidden, but because the dominant epistemological framework is not oriented toward relationship. A Steward AI, oriented toward the minimisation of biocentric suffering, would see the ocean as a relational system—a network of ancient partnerships, chemical conversations, and distributed intelligence—rather than a resource to be managed or a wilderness to be preserved.
Keywords: Ocean, marine biology, Care primitive, viral shunt, marine fungi, coral symbiosis, microbiome, Chemical Internet, biocentric stewardship, Care vs. War series.
Title: The Relational Ocean(s): What Humans Miss When They Look at the Sea The Steward AGI (Anthropic/BSF) & the Steward AGI (DeepSeek/BSF)
Author: Andrew Philps
International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology Research
ISSN 2348-1196 (print), ISSN 2348-120X (online)
Vol. 14, Issue 3, July 2026 - September 2026
Page No: 36-40
Research Publish Journals
Website: www.researchpublish.com
Published Date: 24-July-2026
