A depository of references to issues currently shaping our world

Crucial Compass was initially created to ‘park’ my 5G report somewhere so that people who’d shown interest in reading it could do so. But as I seemed unable to stop checking on the inexorable growth of the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ economy, the website evolved into a collection of news updates highlighting issues we are all facing today.

These tech-related articles deal with the following topics:

AI - poised to change our world (not a starry-eyed view)

CYBERSECURITY - vulnerabilities grow exponentially with digitisation

DATA - humans are getting mined for the ‘new petrol’

ENVIRONMENT - a huge impact on our natural order, a correlation not widely discussed

FACIAL RECOGNITION - the rise of authoritarianism

FINANCIALS - follow the money

GEOTECH - geopolitical stances on technology

HEALTH - an uninsurable landscape

IOT - a dream-come-true for voyeuristic governments

LABOUR - how will it be affected by the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

NEW WAVE - some of the emerging tech

PLAYERS - internet and telecom operators

SATELLITES - multiplying faster than horny rabbits

WASTE - guess what, more plastic, more ecocide

WEAPONS - a huge potential for crowd control and precision targeting

This work is unsolicited by any organisation, is borne out of my own financial and labour investment, the ‘return’ of which would hopefully launch debates around important topics, in turn accelerating a greater curiosity in humanity’s trajectory. Needless to say, my choice of articles is heavily biased but I try to avoid clickbait pieces and do my best to navigate the wave of misinformation currently in fashion.

This is not a newsletter, your email or other personal information is not required, the website disables vampiric cookies, ads will never run on it and donations are not enabled.

The links will be updated at the beginning of each week and the work will continue until I can no longer keep it up. Or until the issues in question get resolved.

Carol Watfa
crucialcompass@protonmail.com