# How well did 1984 hold up in 1985? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [June 12, 2024, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-1984-hold-up-in-1985/1002799 "2024-06-12T21:28:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-1984-hold-up-in-1985/1002799/41 "2024-06-14T18:18:57Z")
And George Jetson was born 2 years ago, so in another 40 years tops we’ll all have flying cars! ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-1984-hold-up-in-1985/1002799/42 "2024-06-14T20:17:10Z")
Looking at these failed predictions, I’m amazed how much 2024 looks like 1966. Yes we have smart phones, which are the hand held devices we were promised in our glorious future, and they are great! Medicine has advanced so much that I wouldn’t want a 90s doctor working on me, let alone a 60s doctor. But a lot is the same, with only the details tweaked. We still drive cars (which any driver from 1966 could get in and go with little to no instruction) on the same roads going the same places following the same rules. We still take our video from the big tube (yes this is changing somewhat but by no means completely) from basically the same broadcast networks. There’s no “interactive” TV shows. No 3d! Many consumer products are still there just the same. We still travel long distances in jets using the same fuels and the same runways, not teleportation or subterranean tube shuttles. or giant dirigibles. We have the same level of space travel we had in the 60s! We’ve actually gone backwards since the 70s. Goods are moved by trains and trucks on the same roads and tracks, and any 60s truck driver could get in and go. We shoot people with the same technology. Lead slugs propelled by gunpowder. No blasters. heck, a lot of people are using the same weapons! (AR-15s) I thjnk any 60s Star Trek or sci fi fan would be terribly disappointed with us. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-1984-hold-up-in-1985/1002799/43 "2024-06-14T20:21:46Z")
> **[Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for December 30, 1989 | GoComics.com](https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1989/12/30)** > > Hobbes: A new decade is coming up. Calvin: Yeah, big deal! Hmph. Where are all the flying colors? Where are the moon colonies? Where are the personal robots and the zero gravity boots, huh? You call this a new decade?! You call this the future?? Ha!... ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-1984-hold-up-in-1985/1002799/44 "2024-06-14T20:29:29Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > We still drive cars (which any driver from 1966 could get in and go with little to no instruction) on the same roads going the same places following the same rules. True, but I doubt a mechanic from 1966 would have the slightest clue how to work on a 2024 car. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-1984-hold-up-in-1985/1002799/45 "2024-06-14T20:33:22Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > True, but I doubt a mechanic from 1966 would have the slightest clue how to work on a 2024 car. 'Tis true, but I was speaking from the external view, like from watching a movie. Time travel a1966 guy into 2024, or show a 2024 police procedural to a 1966 audience and they’ll complain the future isn’t futuristic enough. The cars are rounder but they still are recognizable as cars. Guns look like guns. Cops look like cops. Taxis look…you get the idea. I think the cars in Robocop looked more futuristic than 2024 cars (for the most). Corvettes and Cybertrucks, now that looks like the future! ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2024, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-1984-hold-up-in-1985/1002799/46 "2024-06-14T20:39:08Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I’m amazed how much 2024 looks like 1966. A number of expected things that might have supported a more advanced 2024 just weren’t worked out, at least yet: fusion power, room-temperature superconductors, and AGI. The Space Shuttle was a thirty-year dead end based on a flawed paradigm of conducting spaceflight. ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-1984-hold-up-in-1985/1002799/47 "2024-06-15T15:00:31Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I think the cars in Robocop looked more futuristic than 2024 cars Ford Taurus? I take your point but I don’t think Robocop is a good example. [https://www.imcdb.org/m93870.html](https://www.imcdb.org/m93870.html) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-1984-hold-up-in-1985/1002799/48 "2024-06-15T15:16:04Z")
> [@gregorio](#): > > Ford Taurus? At the time, I remarked that Taurusses looked “like what they said cars of the future would look like”. No so much any more. Right now I’m watching 24 Hr of Le mans. Some guy from 1970 would not be confused. Cars look a little swoopier, but the Dunlop bridge is still there. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-1984-hold-up-in-1985/1002799/49 "2024-06-15T15:21:07Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Some guy from 1970 would not be confused. They would think “How piss ugly are those cars, and why do they all look the same?”. Compare the Porsche 917 and Ford GT of the times with the plastic cars of Le Mans from today. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2024, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-1984-hold-up-in-1985/1002799/50 "2024-06-15T15:26:39Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > How piss ugly are those cars, and why do they all look the same I said confused, not annoyed. 🙂 He’d also wonder what they did to his Mulsanne Straight. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-1984-hold-up-in-1985/1002799.md?page=2)