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 Blog@Ubiquity
Test Early and Often
Developing software requires a mix of analytical and creative approaches, involving different types of people who have different blends of thinking. But how can...
From Blog@Ubiquity
An Evolutionary Singularity
The drumbeats of the singularity advocates is getting louder with the constant refrain that humanity is doomed at the hands of machine intelligence. Although their...
From Blog@Ubiquity
Spike those “Luddite” Awards: Not all innovation is good
Luddites attacking powered looms, 1812 (Source: Wikimedia Commons) The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) published its annual “Luddite Awards...
From Blog@Ubiquity
Your Smartphone Can Kill You
Niall McCarthy of Statista.com uses data from Priceonomics to define a new category of accidental death by smart phone—the “selfie-fatality.” Forty-nine peopleRead...
From Blog@Ubiquity
Tim Cook at the Pearly Gates
By now almost everything that can be said about the Apple-FBI riff has been said. The FBI wants to open the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone and Apple’s CEO Tim...
From My Biased Coin
David Johnson
I was sad to learn that David Johnson passed away. David was a leader in the theoretical computer science community for decades, both in his research and in his...
From My Biased Coin
Distinguished Service Award
Nominations are open for the SIGACT Distinguished Service Prize.More information is available at the SIGACT web site. Here's the key info: Nominations Nominations...
From Blog@Ubiquity
Is the End Near for the Apple iPhone?
Alphabet recently became the largest company based on its market capitalization, squeezing out Apple for the number one spot of all-time successful companies. Perhaps...
From Blog@Ubiquity
The Backdoor is a Victory for Terrorists
When authorities realized the Paris terrorists used strong encryption to send messages to one another they went off the encryption deep end. Now, many nations are...
From Blog@Ubiquity
How Much Higher Can ICT Rise? On the Final Limits of ICT
Information and communication technology (ICT) is the most distinctive cultural accomplishment of the last half century. It is unprecedented in sophistication and...
From My Biased Coin
Graduating Bits Announcement
Boaz asked me to remind people about ITCS, and in particular the Graduating Bits Event. Just in time for those of us reading application folders....ITCS 2016 will...
From Blog@Ubiquity
Language Lessons from a Steam-powered Light Bulb
People who make a career in science, computers or otherwise, generally do so because they are naturally drawn to it. They find science fascinating and entertaining...
From Blog@Ubiquity
My GPS Car Is Smarter Than Your Honor Student
Driverless cars may know how to negotiate intersections and park themselves better than humans, but so far I haven’t read about a smart car that can get me through...
From Blog@Ubiquity
Sirens’ Song of the IoT
These days we are witnessing a gold rush to the shining, promising new trillions of dollars market consisting of 30-50 billion devices interconnecting anything....
From Blog@Ubiquity
Who Shaped Modern Computing — Part 2?
Legends like John McCarthy, Edsger Dijkstra and John Backus made significant impacts in the field and shaped modern computing as we know it today. By developing...
From Blog@Ubiquity
Who is Big in Computing – Part 1?
We should never forget the roots of our profession, and humble programmers should remember who made modern computing. The post Who is Big in Computing – Part 1?...
From Blog@Ubiquity
Imitators and Innovators Adopt RISC
While it may come as a surprise, today RISC architecture computer systems dominate the mobile computing landscape. It has been 40 years in the making. The post ...
From My Biased Coin
Yes, We Have Postdocs This Year
The Harvard Theory of Computation group has postdocs. This year, besides our usual general call for postdocs, we are also inaugurating the Michael O. Rabin Postdoctoral...
From Blog@Ubiquity
What Can Paragons of Literature Teach Us about Writing Better Computer Programs?
While grappling with mechanics of writing, we all too often lose sight of another important insight into effective communication. The post What Can Paragons ofBLOG...
From My Biased Coin