If people in 1985 could see the world today?

If you could show the people of 1985 a flash of today they would all be too depressed to go on. It's best that it never happened. We have gone steadily downhill in thirty years in every way that matters (not including medical advances).

I don't agree with people saying that 80's folk would be surprised at our lack of progress in manned space exploration. Public interest in that had already died in the 70's after the Space Race was won, and while it picked up again a bit in the 80's with the Shuttle, it never approached the same buzz and impact on people's consciousness as there had been during the heyday of Apollo, Gemini and Mercury. I think people with an interest in space exploration in the 80's knew full well there wasn't going to be any major manned achievements over the next few decades. If anything, I think it would be people from the 50's and 60's who would be more surprised that we're not living in Moon cities and driving space cars or whatever by now.

I think to that lives in 2015 now do not realize how many things have changed since it was 85
because many changes happened relatively slow
take computers they became faster and faster but at slow pace.
in 85 most computers were boring we had amiga with limited graphics and horrible sound.

in ps4 we have nearly movie graphics and everybody is connected to the internet and everybody has a very fast computer

even a mobile phone is many times faster than a computer in 85.

From my experience I would say that an orthopedic surgeon from 1985 would be very surprised to see people under the age of 60 getting joint replacement surgery and the prosthetic joint lasting at least 20 years. I had to have both of my knees replaced in my late 30s a few years ago and if it had been in 1985 instead of 2012 I would have ended up in a wheelchair. My mother needed her hip replaced in the late 80s when she was in her 40s and the surgeon refused because they said that she was too young.

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MTV no longer showing music videos.

The weather is unpredictable and the post office is near extinction.

I think they'd displeased at the lack of incredible technology (moon colonies, etc.) but pleased with the increased quality of life. Older is not always better.