Today, Tuesday, September 1 marks the first day of the final third of the 2020s, when the decade is cut into three equal spans of 40 months each. The first third of the decade stretched from January 1, 2020 to April 30, 2023, and the last third will end on December 31, 2029 – a date that is now closer than May 1, 2023.
- The sense of time has been greatly disrupted since the start of the decade, notably due to the coronavirus pandemic.
- From March 17, 2020 to May 3, 2021, France in particular endured a total of 128 days of lockdowns, accounting for more than a third of a year.
Over the past five years, the world has also undergone profound transformations: Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the first version of ChatGPT was made public nine months later, Queen Elizabeth II and Pope Francis have died, Donald Trump has returned to power, and China has organized two editions of the World Humanoid Robot Games, the humanoid equivalent of the Olympic Games.
- Since July 2025, humanity is closer to the end of 2050 than to the year 2000.
- This future, though it still seems distant, is thus closer to a past that, for some, has not yet fully passed.