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1) Tesla software release mid-year turns on full automatic driving, with minor glitches still happening and causing a few accidents (but nothing fatal).
By end of decade, at least two new forms of social media become prominent. A "second tier" of social media develops, possibly with new as-yet undiscovered features, as alternatives become interesting. YouTube continues to dominate; Facebook loses half its size, as it can no longer compete correctly, and depends on its legacy status to survive.
"Always-on" body cam technology will become popular; some people will wear them 24x7 to capture interesting things that happen in their lives. By end of decade, new reality programming will feature this technology, as people share entire scenes of their lives, perhaps even with tech-assisted multi-camera editing and production.
Carbon capture technology leads to a "carbon neutral" coal plant by end of decade; China and India urged to retrofit their plants ASAP, but they don't, due to costs.
2) Recession starts 2Q2020, is weak, recovery fast, and the correction drives things ahead again at a good pace in a year.
3) Trump reelection causes increase in anger, entropy, until by 2022 nobody has any patience left for it; by end of 2022, disco comes raging back. Everybody gets laid. Full employment, rising wages and falling gun culture drives a drop in violent crime; by end of decade, cities see homicides cut in half.
The self-improvement "industry" that kicked off in the 1980s with books and workout videos, returns with a vengeance. New forms of self-improvement are advertised. Some of them actually work.
Colleges and Universities become less popular, as people can learn skills from the net without signing over their entire future to a loan. There is a drop in enrollment percentages for the first time. Specific and complicated certification programs may replace degrees as the "paper" you need to get in order to be successful. (This is already partly true in IT)
4) By end of decade, Iran's mullahs out; Korean unification discussions begin, possibly following a tragic event. Chinese human rights disaster becomes public and horrifies the world, calling for action.
5) Scotland leaves UK; Quebec tries to leave Canada but fails again; American states see secessionist movements kick off, but are unsuccessful. Globalism continues to be main pressure as African and S. American economies bloom and take a chunk of Chinese manufacturing. Elon reaches Mars.
A new "middle class homelessness" movement shows up by end of decade, as people seek new ways of being adventurous.
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