Regarding economics, the economist Paul Krugman was the first to say it, in an essay in 1994, when he suggested that the slowdown in Japan might reveal what was going to happen to all other advanced nations. It was an idea he then developed over several years, in a series of essays, and then finally when his predictions came true, he came out with a book on the subject:
> last stop before the planet Mars: In Japan, the world’s most technologically sophisticated society, the future has already happened, says Peter Popham
