If someone from the 1950s suddenly appeared today, what would be the most difficult thing to explain

[DanielBrown]

I'm sure I saw this exact thread somewhere... at least something related to it.
Anyways, I saw a response there that summed out how the meeting would turn out:
Future boy: So this thing is a very tiny computer/telephone that can access all the knowledge of the world.
50's guy: Amazing! What do you use it for?
Future boy: Looking at pictures of cats, mostly.

I think that would be hard to explain.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

Why the Sam Hill people instagram their food.

That's not really a fair one though. Because I live in this modern world and even I don't understand it.

On-Topic: I wouldn't try to explain anything to them. I'd set them in front of a huge flat screen television and show them the first three Star Wars movies, Independence Day, Every Star Trek episode, and the Marvel movies. If the next words out of their mouth was anything other than "more please", I'd just shove them back into whatever fridge we found them in.

 

[Stryc9]

I wouldn't bother explaining anything to them. The sooner they either kill themselves or end up locked up in a mental institution the better off we'd be. The 1950's were not a period of history to really be proud of and anyone trying to return us to that should be silenced.

 

[splayfoot1]

The conversation would probably go like this.

" I have a device in my pocket capable of accessing the entirety of human knowledge. I use it to argue with strangers and look at pictures of cats."

 

[Single Shot]

"Those things you called morals, for right or wrong reasons they're all gone. Oh, and we finished giving back the Empire in the 60's"

 

[CarlsonAndPeeters]

I don't think this would be the hardest thing to explain, but for someone from the 50's, I think they'd be pretty psyched to learn that we put multiple people on the moon. That's still so awesome to me.

 

[Altorin]

why their guts are exploding from viruses and bacteria strains they have no resistance to at all.

 

[Kotaro]

"It's now more socially acceptable to be gay than a Congressman."
--Barney Frank

Well, that and the internet.

 

[Psychobabble]

Uh .. well... I'd have to say the hardest thing to explain would be the amazingly insane amount of condescension at how stupid and backward we here in the modern world felt those in the 50s were, when in reality there isn't that much actual difference. People who were alive in the 1950s didn't arrive in that decade fully formed from a vacuum. They saw their previous generations morph and evolve through social and technological changes just like we did. They weren't fucking retarded.

 

[Mersadeon]

Someone from the 50s in my country? As in, that person is an adult at 1950? Hard question. Probably "We are one country again - oh, and they also trust us around nuclear power" is going to be a damn hard sell. Well, maybe not the reunification bit - someone from the 70s probably would have more of a problem with that.

 

[magter3001]

I assume it's someone from one of the modern countries in the 1950's. In that case, trying to explain how stupid the Cold War was and how people were fed (and still are) about the evils of different races, basically dividing people and putting them into a certain category.

 

[SD-Fiend]

How they got here in he first place.

 

[Quaxar]

Right, I'm gonna need a dubstep remix of Obama's presidential speech on a Samsung Galaxy S4 in a USSR-flag casing.

It's either that or the <url=http://www.webpronews.com/monopoly-officially-introduces-new-piece-2013-08>new official monopoly piece.

 

[Epicspoon]

why their guts are exploding from viruses and bacteria strains they have no resistance to at all.

This one made my day. as for me? I'm not going to explain a thing to them. I'm just going to tell them that the best way to get people to like you is to read a book called "Twilight" and then talk nonstop about how much you love it.

 

[Abomination]

Let's see, there's been the moon landing, we've put devices on mars and discovered water there.

We can restart a person's heart with electricity and even replace a person's heart with surgery.

We have flying vehicles that can travel several factors faster than sound and take off vertically.

The atom bomb was like popping a pimple compared to the decapitation that modern nuclear warheads have as their payload.

We have automated factories and 3D printers.

Sexual and racial equality have been legally realized - if not socially enacted yet.

America has passed its apex and is on the slow decline.

Communism is no longer the boogeyman - it's Radical Islam.

Encyclopedias are now obsolete with the modern internet.

Video games themselves would be really amazing to show someone from the 1950s, especially something like the more realistic WW2 simulators. Imagine explaining that to a veteran who can remember doing those very things no more than 5 years ago.

Japan is a industrial and financial powerhouse. South Korea is a technological development centre. Dubai is one of the most expensive and rich cities on the planet.

 

[Fijiman]

How they got here in he first place.

I have to agree with this because unless you purposely brought the guy to the present day I don't think anyone could explain that.

 

[omega 616]

I like what Dara Obriain said about it, "if you brought the greatest minds in history to present day, you'd think they would be be astounded by our intellectual butwe are all 3 steps away from looking like idiots! You would tell them about computers, and they would say "how does it work?" and you would say "you plug it into the wall" and with anticipation they say "then what?" and you dimly say "I don't know".... No matter what house hold item you pick, the magical wall makes it work... You flush the toilet and it goes into the wall"

I think phones and tablets would blow there fucking minds, they blow my fucking mind! I'm holding a credit card sized wonder device! I can call, take pics, text, do complicated maths, surf the Web, listen to music, play games and it has 10gb of memory but most importantly, it's wireless! ... I have no fucking clue how this technology works to any degree, it's a box of magic!

I don't know how accurate I am with this but 50's tvs were monstrous, heavy things with a tiny screen, wired into a wall. I get better quality picture on my phone and I can carry it in my pocket! Probably get better sound as well.

 

[Nokturos]

I'd put on the Back to the Future trilogy, sit them in front of the tv, and when they were finished with all three movies I'd say: "You see what 2015 was like? Well, sorry to disappoint, but there aren't any flying cars or hoverboards just yet."

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

i would probably just do it like they did in encino man

 

[Vegosiux]

From my parts?

"Tito is dead, and Yugoslavia doesn't exist anymore. No, neither does the Deutschmark. But it's easy, think approximately 1EUR = 2DEM"

Also, the entertainment scene in general. Oh and that they shouldn't worry if the cashier at the store can break a twenty.