2020s

The 2020s is the 3rd decade of the 21st century of the "Anno Domini" (common) era. It will begin on January 1, 2020 and end on December 31, 2029.

By the end of the decade, world population is projected to surpass 8 billion people. [see various projections and sources at World population estimates]

Almost all of Generation Z will be in adulthood by the year 2025 and the first members of the next generation after Generation Z will become teenagers.

Notable predictions and known events

*Solar scientists predict that, by 2020, the sun will be starting into its weakest Schwabe solar cycle of the past two centuries.fact|date=September 2008
*According to the Aurora programme roadmap, the European Space Agency will send a manned mission to the Moon in 2024.
*By mid-decade, Alpine glaciers are likely to contain only half their 1970's volume. [ [http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=2470 peopleandplanet.net > climate change > features > ice is melting everywhere] ]
*Voyager 2 is expected to stop transmitting back to Earth in the 2020s [cite web
url = http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/spacecraftlife.html
title = Voyager – Spacecraft – Spacecraft Lifetime
accessdate = 2007-11-04
date = 2003-01-14
publisher = NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory]
*Futurist Ray Kurzweil puts 2029 as the year most likely for a breakthrough in Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). He expects that around this time, computers will reach human intelligence levels, and shortly thereafter surpass the capabilities of the human brain.

References