Ahead of the unveiling of the long awaited Part 2 of INFORM's ‘2038:A Smart Port Story’ science fiction novella, the authors have released a teaser image that gives a glimpse of what to expect.
In the image, we see the protagonist from Part 1, Douglas, interacting with the deep purple machine eye (below).
Part 1 saw Douglas at the centre of a mysterious terminal 'accident' in which an intruder his hit and severely injured by an autonomous piece of port equipment.
Read: '2038: A Smart Port Story – Part 1'
The accident became the impetus for an already fractious situation in which a seditious group of anti-automation campaigners (the 'anti-techs') hit fever pitch.
Douglas, a representative of Interpol, was brought in to find out what happened and answer the key plot question: Was this machine fault, human conspiracy, or both?
In the first instalment, readers were taken into a future where AI bots manage whole terminals and new ports have taken the mantle of transshipment global giants, fuelled by increased robotization and the opening up of new trade routes.
View the teaser image below:
Credit: INFORM
To whet your appetite further, PTI has rereleased ‘2038, A Smart Port Story Part 1’, which was written by INFORM’s Dr Eva Savelsberg and Matthew Wittemeier.
Dr Eva Savelsberg will also feature at PTI's upcoming CTAC event in London.
Dr Savelsberg took PTI's audience by storm during her presentation at the Smart Ports and Supply Chain Technologies conference in Rotterdam in October 2018.
Savelsberg took the audience on a hypothetical journey to 2038 and pinpointed key events which shaped the maritime industry’s AI-driven transformation.
Part 2 is due to be released at the next PTI conference, the Container Terminal Automation Conference (CTAC) 2019 on May 6-8 2019, with many of the ideas and concepts explored in both part of '2038, A Smart Port Story' will be discussed and debated at length during CTAC 2019.
PTI Editor Richard Joy said: “I've been fortunate to have a sneak peak at Part 2 and it's an absolute delight.
“The way Matthew Wittemeir and Dr Savelsberg have crafted this novella is really astounding given you'd normally associate them with technical papers. Part 2 is very deep in its plot, characterization and thematic structure – it looks to be an industry classic for years to come.”
