'The improvements that new technology at sea and new practices on shore can bring to shipping should help the global economy develop to its full potential in the 21st century. Such advancements may well restore ships to their former status as the driving force behind world trade. Moreover, the benefits that the FastShip and its future cousins will very likely bring to moving cargo around the globe in the next fifty years should be no less dramatic than those that occurred over the past half century, when engineers developed novel technology for moving people and freight by air.'