From energy prices to the new cold war, we were warned about 2021 – back in 1997 

Cillian Murphy in '28 Days Later', released in 2002: There was no shortage of cultural anxiety around pandemics.

In 1997, when things could only get better, Wired magazine gave over an issue to the raw optimism of the age: we should look forward to 20 solid years of peace, prosperity and progress, as a new age of consensus politics and technological advance smoothed away the rough edges of the warlike beings we once were.

Tucked away in this panacea was a little list: 10 things that could go wrong, and dim the otherwise glittering brightness of the future. It’s like looking in a goddamn mirror.