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Forecasting the future isn't as easy as it looks

As 2020 approaches, the first 60-mile hyperloop, flying cars and $1m Bitcoin remain distant dreams

Originally posted in The National

Predicting the future is hard, even for the people with the most power to influence it. In 2013, Jeff Bezos said he expected Amazon would be delivering packages by drone in four to five years. Here we are seven years later, the flying delivery robots Bezos envisioned are still at the testing stage and have just started to gain regulatory approval in the US.

Corporate fortune telling is a common practice in the technology industry, and executives tend to choose round numbers as deadlines for their technological fantasies. So, as 2019 draws to a close and we approach a new decade, let’s take a look back at how some of the tech industry’s predictions for 2020 fared.

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