Here's a premise for you: autonomous cargo ships, incorporated as their own entities, bidding on freight contracts and offering transport through a system not unlike an AdWords bidding auction. They circle the world constantly, offloading and picking up cargo from sail-through offshore platforms, stopping only for maintenance, and occasionally doing really strange things for reasons only their algorithms can explain.
For those who want a peek into the maritime industries (shipping, offshore extraction, navies, tourism, etc) and their concerns (commodity prices, shipwrecks, arctic warming, big engine tech): gcaptain.com
A book suggestion for anyone who would like to read more: "Ninety percent of everything"<p><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ninety-Percent-Everything-Shipping-Invisible/dp/1250058295/" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ninety-Percent-Everything-Shipping-I...</a>