For a long time I worked in the shipping industry. It is a facinating business that has changed our world. For many people and places the changes of the last 40 years have been delivered by networks of ships not networks of computers.

The rise of Asia and the decline of the West’s industrial heartlands has been the story of shipping containerization. It now costs less to ship a TV from China to England than from Tesco to your house. The effect of this on manufacturing industry was beautifully described in the BBC Documentary “The box that changed Britain“.

Now I found some similar haunting visuals from Detroit.