Maybe I read GP wrong, but what I took it to mean was that the market/talent position of python in 2018 is similar to java in 2004, not that java in 2018 is similar in any way to "2004 python".
Elm, Haskell, Clojure, etc, seem like they fulfill the role of "2004 python" in 2018.
Elm, Haskell, Clojure, etc, seem like they fulfill the role of "2004 python" in 2018.