The week Smartest Systems tried out at Port of Los Angeles

At some point in crafting a complex system, says Smartest Systems founder and CEO Julian Loren, most people throw up their hands. "They say 'it'd be nice if we could see all this in one picture but we can't." Actually, he says, they can — and that he thinks he's figured out how.

I ran into him at a monthly gathering in San Francisco for sustainability-or…