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 CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Gutta-Percha: how a tree launched a global telecom revolution
Mary Ann Horton was transitioning to female at the time that she made one of her biggest contributions to our lives with a simple computer science idea with a...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Even the dolphins use pocket switched networks!
Mary Ann Horton was transitioning to female at the time that she made one of her biggest contributions to our lives with a simple computer science idea with a...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Coordinate conundrum puzzles and vector graphics
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London One way computers store images is as a set of points (as coordinates) that make up lines and shapes. This is the...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Mary Ann Horton and the invention of email attachments
Edie Schlain Windsor was a senior systems programmer at IBM. There is more to life than computing though. She led the landmark US Supreme Court Case that was a...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
From Egyptian Survey puzzles to computational thinking
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London One way to use logical thinking is to deduce new facts but then turn them into IF-THEN rules. They tell us an action...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Pac-Man and Games for Girls
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London In the beginning video games were for boys…and then came Pac-Man. Before mobile games, game consoles and PC based...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
T. V. Raman and his virtual guide dogs
by Daniel Gill, Queen Mary University of London It’s 1989, a year with lots of milestones in Computer Science. In March, Tim Berners-Lee puts down in writing the...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Designing for autistic people
by Daniel Gill and Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London What should you be thinking about when designing for a specific group with specific needs, suchContinue...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Testing AIs in Minecraft
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London What makes a good environment for child AI learning development? Possibly the same as for human child learning development...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Neurodiversity and what it takes to be a good programmer
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London People often suggest neurodiverse people make good computer scientists. For example, one of the most famous autistic...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
The top 10 bugs
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London (updated from the archive) Bugs are everywhere, but why not learn from the mistakes of others. Here are some common...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Do something computationally funny for money
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London It is Red nose day in the UK the day of raising money for the comic relief charity by buying and wearing red noses...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Calculating Pi for Pi Day
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London Today is Pi Day (14 March: 3.14) so we should look at how on earth you compute a number like Pi (3.1.4159….). It...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Could AI end science?
by Nick Ballou, Oxford Internet Institute Scientific fraud is worryingly common, though rarely talked about. It has been happening for years, but now Artificial...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
A visit to the Turing Machine: a short story
by Greg Michaelson Greg Michaelson is an Emeritus professor of computer science at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. He is also a novelist and a short storyContinue...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Lego Computer Science: Turing Machines Part 3: the program
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London We have so far built the hardware of a Lego Turing Machine. Next we need the crucial part: software. It needs aContinue...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Lego Computer Science: Turing Machines Part 2: the controller
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London Last time we started to build a working computer out of Lego: a Turing Machine. So far we have seen that we canContinue...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Lego Computer Science: Turing Machines Part 1: the tape
by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London It it possible to make a working computer out of lego and you do not even have to pay for an expensive robot Mindstorm...
From CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun)
Virtual reality goggles for mice
To become a Jedi Knight you must have complete control of your thoughts. As you feel the force you start to control your surroundings and make objects move just...12