Communications of the ACM
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How the “Frontier” Became the Slogan of Uncontrolled AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been billed as the next frontier of humanity: the newly available expanse whose exploration …
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (November 17th, 2017)
Josiah Zayner, a biochemist who once worked for NASA, became the first person known to have edited his own genes (…) During a lecture about human genetic engineering...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Fast exact integer divisions using floating-point operations (ARM edition)
In my latest post, I explained how you could accelerate 32-bit integer divisions by transforming them into 64-bit floating-point divisions. Indeed, 64-bit floating...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Fast exact integer divisions using floating-point operations
On current processors, integer division is slow. If you need to compute many quotients or remainders, you can be in trouble. You potentially need divisions when...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (August 18th, 2017)
We’d like, one day, to transplant pig organs into human beings. Sadly, this is currently very dangerous because, even though pigs are very similar to us, the small...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Damore, Google: my thoughts
So an engineer called Damore wrote a memo that opposed Google’s diversity policies and he was fired. Here is a questions-and-answers with me. I am the interviewer...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
On Melissa O’Neill’s PCG random number generator
Computers often need random numbers. Most times, random numbers are not actually random… in the sense that they are the output of a mathematical function that is...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Bubbling up is lowering empathy at a civilization scale
Computer networks are a fantastic invention. When they came in my life, I remember spending hours, sometimes days, arguing with people I violently disagreed with...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Optimizing polynomial hash functions (Java vs. Swift)
In software, hash functions are ubiquitous. They map arbitrary pieces of data (strings, arrays, …) to fixed-length integers. They are the key ingredient of hash...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (August 11th, 2017)
It looks like the Java programming language might finally get in-language support for vector instructions, these instructions are supported by modern processors...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (August 4th, 2017)
Lifting a lot of small weights and eating protein regularly builds muscle mass. There is no need for heavy weights and hormones matter less than you think. There...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (July 27th, 2017)
Currently, damage to the retina is largely viewed as irreversible. However, some researchers were able to generate retinal cells in mice. Toyota is reportedly ready...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (July 21st, 2017)
Want proof that you live in the future? Ok. There is this “cryptocurrency” called ethereum and it is causing a shortage of microprocessors: Demand from Ethereum...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
What is “modern” programming?
As a young teenager, I dabbled with basic and some assembly. Things got serious when I learned Turbo Pascal. “Now we are talking”, I thought. Turbo Pascal offered...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (July 14th, 2017)
PC shipments are at the lowest level of the last 10 years, and they have been declining for the last two years. Using smartphone data, researchers are able forContinue...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Pruning spaces faster on ARM processors with Vector Table Lookups
Last week, I asked how fast one could remove spaces from a string using ARM processors. On a particular benchmark, I got 2.4 cycles per byte using regular (scalar)...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (July 7th, 2017)
People magazine recently named Julia Roberts, who is 49, as the World’s Most Beautiful Woman. Volvo plans to commercialize self-driving cars in 2020, and all electric...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Are your strings immutable?
A value is immutable if it cannot change. Immutability is a distinct notion than that of a constant. The speed of light in a vacuum is believed to be a universal...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Pruning spaces from strings quickly on ARM processors
Suppose that I give you a relatively long string and you want to remove all spaces from it. In ASCII, we can define spaces as the space character (‘ ‘), and the...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (July 1st, 2017)
Canada is 150 years old today. The iPhone is 10 years old this year. We can safely say that the iPhone 7 is over a hundred times faster, in almost every way than...
From Daniel Lemire's Blog