I would like to answer for my great-grandfather, who died in his nineties in the nineties and who used to wave his walking stick and shout “On to the year 2000!”
He thought there would be a peaceful, unified Europe. He thought that every country would have free democratic elections. He thought there would be peace and an end to poverty. He thought genocide would be something for history books.
I don’t know much of what he thought in terms of SF tech stuff, though I think he vaguely thought computers had great potential. I don’t think space travel excited him as much as peaceful unified Europe did. He was always very excited for the future, even the future he knew he would never see. He never thought he would see the year 2000, he was just excited for what the world would bring next. After WWII it always seemed to him things could only get better.
I think he would be proud of Europe, at least, though he would see much room for improvement of course. I imagine the weak response to Putin would infuriate him.
I wish you all could see him, his old-fashioned suit and his walking stick. He raises his stick in the air, shakes it, and bellows: “On to the year 2000!”