[Reading] "The Box" - A story about the "great technological revolution" just before the AI revolution -

Good morning. Today, I would like to introduce a book I read a while ago.

It is "The Box" by Marc Levinson.

A revised edition was published around 2019, and at the time, many influencers praised it, saying, "This is fascinating."

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger (Expanded and Revised Edition)

A story from just 50 years ago about how an iron box changed the world

When you go to airports or ports, you see iron boxes (containers) piled up like mountains. International shipping containers have become so familiar to us that NHK even planned an information variety show titled "I tried opening this container."

The method using these maritime containers, known as international intermodal transport, began just 50 years ago. It is said that there were many ambiguous parts in the story of how it spread after that.

It seems that many people had similar ideas, and for a time, it was likely a chaotic situation, but it can be said that the world's logistics were revitalized to this extent precisely because a single, powerful path for development and popularization was ultimately established.

The author, Mr. Levinson, conducted diligent research and compiled the story into a single narrative.

Unassuming but great— A bottom-up revolution led by "passion"

The route of this "technological revolution" began with very raw "passion."

"Port work is tough," "It's hard to gather people," "We have to do something"— these were the earnest thoughts everyone had, and they were sublimated into a system that would change the global economy, starting from the idea of a single trucking company: "Wouldn't it be better if we could transport cargo in iron boxes of a fixed size?"

This is the ultimate super bottom-up story that started not from technology-driven initiatives, but from the "passion" and "ideas" of those on the front lines.

It changed not only the flow of goods but also the landscape of cities

Until then, port piers were overflowing with people carrying and loading cargo. They were the vitality of the city, but at the same time, they were also a challenge for public safety and maintaining a stable life.

As container transport spread, where did they go? They didn't suddenly disappear. Over the span of these few decades, such occupations slowly faded away.

Unlike the "revolution" known as the Meiji Restoration, which led the country to a state of civil war because the "positions" of a specific class suddenly vanished, the container revolution was a gentle, time-consuming transformation.

An anonymous revolution

Because of its influence in changing people's lives and city landscapes, and slowly erasing certain occupations, it is even said that the container might be the greatest invention after the three great inventions of the world.

Despite its immense impact, a major characteristic is that the name of a specific "someone" who accomplished it does not remain. Having once been involved in work dealing with maritime containers, I also feel like saying it was "a revolution accomplished by everyone involved."

So, what is this "revolution" called AI?

Learning about the container, a "technological revolution that preceded AI," makes one wonder what kind of revolution the DX and AI trends currently heating up the world really are.

OpenAI was supposed to have started as an NPO (non-profit organization) to make the world a better place, but it has now become an organization that has no choice but to consider profitability.

We also hear talk of AI being used as a resource to leverage unused knowledge dormant within companies, and as a solution for population decline and increasingly complex social issues.

That said, the current reality is that "using AI" has become an end in itself, and bookstores are filled with piles of AI-related books alongside health, diet, and English learning books.

The container revolution changed the world by quietly and massively supporting the backstage of the world, out of sight.

Perhaps the technological revolutions that truly change the world are not actually technology-driven, but rather accompany modest, large-scale systems that "support the backstage."

Will we get the answer in 20 years?

As the story of the container shows, it takes about 50 years for a technology to become established as social infrastructure and for its development history to be looked back upon in books.

Starting with the advent of the PC, the birth of the term DX (Digital Transformation), and the emergence of AI, I think we might only be at the "turning point of the overall story" in the current flow compared to the history of container adoption.

I hope that in another 10 or 20 years, the AI revolution will also be looked back upon as a "bottom-up revolution driven by ideas."