Advances in Technology

While watching a Saturday morning detective movie from the mid-80's I was reminded at the lack of technology in the late 20th century.

In the movie, the police professionals ran from payphone to payphone, received urgent communication via Telex and Teletype, got their fingers smudged from carbon paper and typewriter ribbons and needed to keep the "perp" on the phone for three minutes in order to trace the call.  Research required an assistant to spend hours in the "file room" going through hundreds of manila folders.  Days went by as they waited for documents in the mail from another juristication.  A Dick Tracy wrist radio was fantasy and crime scene photos were captured with a Polaroid.  Personal vehicles were equipped with the latest "8-track".  Someone was smoking in virtually every scene... in the office, restaurants, hospital rooms and air planes.

I remember my first "mobile phone" during this period.  The handset was from an old black desk phone and the transeiver was a large box in the trunk.  It cost me $2500 plus $1.00 per minute.  (That was twice as much in today's dollars.)  My calls were connected by a "ship to shore" operator and reception was poor.
My first computer was an IBM System 32 that was a large as a banquet table with a two-foot diameter hard drive.  The green "dos" screen was only 6" and the entire capacity was less than a Blackberry today.  A professional was needed to make even the slightest changes to anything.  It was obsolete the day after I bought it.
Airlines passed out sample packets of cigarettes and provided a full, free hot meal... even in "Coach".  Anyone could see their friends "off" at the gate and "Stewardesses" were all young, attractive females.

I can't imagine the technology advances currently being developed for 2020.