I was a kid in the 1950s, and I’d be very intrigued by life in 2009. Especially the ubiquity of computers, and all the things I can do on my Mac. And wow, CDs and iPods and HD TVs you can hang on a wall! I’d also be very excited about the kind of work I do.
No it isn’t. When I think flying car, I think of a flying device that I can park in my garage (or on my roof), and can use to commute to work, or the supermarket, etc, and park in a lot full of other flying cars. Something that can hover, move straight up & down, takes up little space, can use in a residential area, etc. Not something that I’d have to drive to an airport to use, then land at another airport, then use some other land-bound transport to get to my final destination.
Well, I want to know where the moving sidewalks are, huh? When I was in grade school in the late 50s our class saw an exhibit of our city with a model indicating all moving sidewalks. Except at a couple of random airports, they don’t exist. I want to know what happened, huh? Where are they? 
Seriously, I’m surprised at some of the things that happened. My mother always used to tell me that her father said the things in Buck Rogers would come true. Yeah, we went to outer space all right. Cellphones (like Dick Tracey which someone mentioned), personal computers.
Back then we didn’t even know what a computer was, let alone dream we would have our own and it would be small enough to carry around. THE computer back then was something called UNIVAC which took up an entire office building floor. People typed on a typewriter with carbon paper if they wanted copies.
Even Caller ID. A simple thing now but back then we would have killed to have a way of knowing who was calling before we answered.
Amazing stuff to a grade schooler in the 50s, that’s for sure…
Why bother with moving sidewalks when everyone drives everywhere? 
Americans are fat enough as is.
Yes, back in 1959 even photocopiers were uncommon.
We have a moving sidewalk at Ballys Park Place, connecting our Casino to our Bus Terminal.
I think women and minorities would be happy with the progression of civil rights .
Asimov talked about moving sidewalks where, starting on one side, the speed of each sidewalk got progressively faster until, on the far side you were moving 60mph relative to the ground. Now that would be cool.
Moving sidewalks wasn’t a 50s thing – it started out early on (the 20s?) and hit its stride with Heinlein’s “The Roads Must Roll” and Asimov’s The Caves of Steel. It always sounded to me like a grotesquely energy-intensive undertaking, and I never understood why it was thought to be such a great idea. (Especially after Heinlein so graphically pointed out its possible outcomes.
I think the thing that would shock the 50’s people would be the cost of a cup of coffee and a gallon of gas. They’d probably go into a right tizzy over the cost of it all. The day to day little things would probably be harder for them to wrap their brains around.
I think I would enjoy seeing a 50’s guy see a Victoria Secret’s catalog.
I was born in '38 and the electronic technology just thrills my boggled my mind. Even applications of electronic technology like Wikipedia and Google are still fascinating.
I could care less about space exploration (Which, along with warfare probably game us the technology mentioned in the paragraph above.).
I am very, very disappointed with politics and religion.
Would people from two weeks ago be disappointed in “the future”?
Well, they’d certainly be wondering where in the heck the Roman Empire went.
Obligatory MST3K link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcWJnLYRiic
Sounds like the vintage General Motors short film Design for Dreaming (Now with free MST3K commentary 
)
Holy crap, dude. I just came back from a business trip in Europe. I paid $4.50 euro for a cup of coffee (a true coffee Americano, and excellent by the way). That’s $7 for a cup of coffee to you and me, by the way. I hope my European counterparts make their money in euro rather than dollars.
Flashman author George MacDonald Fraser, of all strange people: he even correctly foretold that it would fuel the rebirth of the historical epic.
As for moving sidewalks, HG Wells had them in The Sleeper Awakes, and that was 1910.
I think anyone so inclined to have an opinion on it would have been disappointed in the space program. The fact that it’s yielded amazing satellite technology and advanced mapping and thousands-of-channels TV is impressive, but doesn’t seem quite that “sexy”?
Hamster — (obviously) didn’t see the previous thread. Guess great minds think alioke 
Galactica 1980 was not a documentary 
Nothing that fancy, yet.
I think my dad is still living in 1959. He shuns most technology of a vintage of less than about 40 years, except cable television and microwave ovens*. The things he won’t or refuses to use include:
- Dishwasher
- Cordless telephone
- Cellular telephone
- Debit card
- ATM
- Internet and computers
- FM radio
- DVD player (will no longer rent videos since VHS tapes were taken off the slelves of the local Blockbuster)
- CD player (bought a late-model used car, wondered why it didn’t have a cassette tape player.)
- Digital camera
One thing about the 1950s vision of the future: it was thought that EVERYBODY would embrace all the technology that was available at their disposal. I can’t imagine they’d envision the old-timer that didn’t want a flying car, but just wanted to drive on the ground in a four-wheeled relic; someone who wanted a home-cooked meal instead of food pills; or who thought the metallic unitards everybody was supposed to wear were kind of tacky.
- Yes, SDMB pedants, I know cable television and microwave ovens have been around more than 40 years, but they were extremely uncommon.
I was born in 1957. I really had hoped for a cure for the common cold, an end to hunger; and a cure for cancer. I was naive, I’m still a-waiting. I’m still astonished that there are hungry people on this planet, when we grow enough food to feed everyone. Political boundries are a bitch, aren’t they?