The 2018 edition was very demanding on the developers and led to a lot of burnout. They’ve tried to reduce the likelihood of that happening again.
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OK, Kotlin Multiplatform is obviously cool, but I think you asked about “the ‘coolest’”. So I think the ‘coolest’ language and tech are Erlang and BEAM, even right now.
Looks like @AstonJ already mentioned Erlang/OTP. And I agree that Erlang was so ahead of its time.
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I can completely relate with wanting to reduce burnout but IMO they shouldn’t have announced the Rust 2021 edition at all. I believe there are venues where new syntax can really make an impact and they should have just postponed them for a near-future edition (2022, 2023 etc.)
The 2021 one looks like a very half-hearted effort, sort of like “Fine, we are obliged to make the damn edition, here, get something that anyone would hardly notice”.
Again, they should have just said “Rust will not have a 2021 edition. We will entertain the idea again in 2022”.
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While I agree with everyone that Rust is really cool (I love it too), I think Go is on the upswing again.
But what do I know, I like LISPs too.
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Meaning what in this case? Popularity? New language features?
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I’d classify it as hype I guess. And partly in “real” popularity. At least in the circles I’m associated with.
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I think it’s very likely that we’ll see Go as popular as Python one day - it can be argued that Python became as popular as it did because Google said they used it (it was certainly one of its biggest plus points when I was weighing it up against Ruby).
We just need to start a thread placing bets on when that might be 
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Go is basically improved Python anyway. It’s super logical for it to be popular in those circles.
I’ll admit that Go is a bit easier and quicker to start a project with. But to me, the guarantees that Rust gives you absolutely outweigh some of the pains you have to endure to develop in Rust.
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Perhaps one of the reasons that things look like that is most changes to the language and its libraries can occur without needing a new edition. Moreover, Rust is a stable platform and expect the rate of change to slow down.
Lastly, to reiterate the point about burnout, here is a quote from the Rust 2021 announcement in May:
However, note that Rust is a project run by volunteers. We prioritize the personal well-being of everyone working on Rust over any deadlines and expectations we might have set. This could mean delaying the edition a version if necessary, or dropping a feature that turns out to be too difficult or stressful to finish in time.
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I don’t disagree and I even said this much in my comments. I’m not entitled to any of the fantastic Rust team’s free labor fruits.
All I was saying is that they could have just refused to have a Rust 2021 edition. They didn’t have to make it because it brings almost nothing to the table. It simply left me scratching my head wondering why was it even done.
Bold statement, improvements can always come along and be integrated. 
IMO Rust could stand to be a bit less verbosive and introduce a few more shortcuts like the ? operator.
But I’ll also immediately admit that, for the extremely complex things Rust can do, its syntax is just fine and also superior to many other languages.
Finally, I too see Rust’s language stabilization and completeness as a very good thing.
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