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Mitsubishi’s view of 2020 was both incredibly on-point and way-off at the same time.

Well it’s been a heck of a year in Japan, hasn’t it? Women drank tea from their chests and a bunch of people played rugby. All in all, it’s been pretty productive, but as the new year looms we must turn our attention not to the achievements of the past, but to what lies await in the future…in the year 2020 AD!!!!

You might be thinking that it’s pretty much going to be more of the same Post Malone and Star Wars that’s occupied much of the last decade, but you’d be dead wrong, Buster Brown! You’ve clearly not read the pamphlet Travel Through Time to Japan of 2020 AD! made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as a part of the 1970 World Expo in Osaka.

▼ “I wonder if we can pull all this off in the next 10 days.”

As a leader in manufacturing technology, Mitsubishi used their cutting-edge insight to predict what was to happen exactly 50 years in the future. It’s pretty accurate too, as some of these things have already happened…more or less.

For example, they said that in 2020 mankind will recreate huge natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions and floods, and we are already excelling at that. Unfortunately, whoever was in charge of the floating bridge technology to keep us out of the way of this unprecedented destruction dropped the ball.

However, according to Mitsubishi, in 2020 we will be able to repel typhoons by shooting them with nuclear weapons. People laughed at Donald Trump when he may or may not have suggested such a thing, but you know who else people laughed at?

Leonard da Vinci.

▼ At least, I assume they did… I mean the guy lived to be 67, so I’m sure someone must have laughed at him at some point.

Also, sea exploration is really going to kick in next year in a big way. Mitsubishi says that not only will we build entire cities on the ocean floor, but it will also be the next frontier for industry to set up shop and search of all of the sea’s treasures. Mitsubishi’s prophecy has also been supported by the highly prescient Sealab 2020.

However, if we don’t act soon, the whole thing will go to hell rather quickly, as shown by the equally prophetic, Sealab 2021.

Ocean development is already becoming a reality too. Mankind, in an unprecedented show of global teamwork, has sent all of its plastic (and a fair bit of crude oil too) into the middle of the Pacific Ocean to be converted into a gorgeous “seatopolis.” We just need someone to go out there and, like, build it.

“What about those of us who prefer dry land?” you might be asking. For those people, Mitsubishi predicted a veritable explosion in bridge technology and development. Bridges going every which way will provide all your transportation needs and there will even be a bridge into space! That might sound like a long walk at first, but luckily even back in 1970 Mitsubishi had already mastered the “moving sidewalk” a thing that once only existed in fantasy utopias like The Jetsons.

▼ Here’s a little taste of how it looked back then

Sure, you only see those things in airports nowadays, but trust Mitsubishi when they say that moving sidewalks are going to make a big splash in 2020. There’s also something that called a “recreation sphere” which… I’m not sure what it is, but it kind of looks like that thing they play blitzball in in Final Fantasy X.

As you can imagine, many minds were blown by what is set to transpire in just a few days and left their shaken comments online.

“I don’t think we’re going to do all that in the next 100 years.”
“Finally! I’ve been waiting for the future where we all walk through tubes.”
“I think we should keep Tokyo the way it was in 2011.”
“I think we’re heading more down the Blade Runner route.”
“My money’s on the Mad Max scenario.”
“Meanwhile, Mitsubishi has been called a ‘black company‘ for two years in a row.”
“Wasn’t shooting typhoons with nuclear weapons a crazy idea in 1970 too?”
“They were right about cities being at the bottom of the ocean. Just not the way they intended.”
“I was hoping for something more cyberpunk.”

A lot of people have their own ideas for what the future will look like, but perhaps it’s something best left to the professionals like Mitsubishi who are still at it, working on the driest and most comfy towels known to humankind as well as mid-air holograms like in the movies.

So, I think when they say we’re all going into the sea and riding escalators everywhere in 2020, that’s something you can take to the bank. It’ll be exciting to see what they predict for 2075 when the World Expo returns to Osaka in five years. I’m going to go out on a limb and expect big advancements in computer mouse technology and the coat hangers we’ll be using then will knock your gelatinous socks off!

Source: Twitter/@mayan1969, Hachima Kiko
Featured image: Twitter/@mayan1969
Insert image: Wikipedia/Francesco Melzi
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