When Did the Future Become the Present? also, Star Trek

A friend of mine recently got pregnant because she's been taking ambien for insomnia; one of the occasional side-effects of ambien is performing complex activities while sleep-walking--people on ambien have been known to cook, clean, and have conjugal relations, as she did with her boyfriend, and next thing she knew she was missing her period. I've read on-line of people distressed because they were having unknowingly cheating on their spouses while on ambien, and didn't know how to explain it without sounding like a total schmuck. As one advice columnist pointed out, we now have a drug that allows one to cheat on one's spouse and maintain plausible deniability. When did the future become the present?

xkcd comic also recently pointed out there are now fleets of robot drones patrolling the skies of afghanistan--when did the future become the present?

When I was driving along the Colombia River last week, I saw electric windmills lining both the Oregon and Washington river banks for miles. When did the future become the present?

My computer science phd roommate told me that every year since 2002, the human race creates more information than all the information combined that has been created since the dawn of recorded history. We now have computers on our phones, mini phones that fit in our ears, a bill to legalize pot in California, and lazer surgery to cure blindness. When did the future become the present? For crying out loud, we have a black dude with a muslim name as President of the United States of America.

I guess I always figured that I'd know the future had become the present once we had moonbases and hover boards (five years, you hear me Back to the Future Part II, you hear me? You have five years to deliver!), but without any of us really paying attention, the future rolled over into the present.

And more signs Grad School has infected my thoughts: I recently watch the old "Menagerie" episode of "Star Trek," and found myself struck by its Cartesian and Post-Structural themes. And last time I rewatched "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn," when Kirk's son says "But good words; they're where ideas begin," I found myself thinking, "well, my, that's a very structuralist statement to make, followed by the thoughts, "What's happening to me?! HOWAAAAAAARD!"