We're not too far away from the world of 'Hardwired' by Walter Jon Williams.

I was reading an article a while back about the drug cartels where they've created their own submarines to ship cocaine up from South America. Not nearly as cool as turbojet powered hovercraft with miniguns and SAMs, piloted via neural interface. But it is still pretty wild, when you think about it.

And of course we've got increased use of robots (drones) involved with smuggling too.

And then there are the giant mega-corporations, backed by AIs, running the world. The people in the corporations may think they are in control, but the corporations themselves have their own agenda.

At least we're also on a good path as far as reusable spacecraft now...