Communications of the ACM
Innovation Is Overrated: A Provocation
Digital innovation is not working in the interest of the whole of society. It is time to radically rethink its purpose without…
From ACM Opinion
At Sxsw, the Next Big Thing May Be No Thing at All
Every year, just before South by Southwest Interactive starts, the froth starts churning. Everybody begins wondering what this year’s breakout hit app will be.
From ACM Opinion
Why Copyrighted Coffee May Cripple the Internet of Things
With its single-serving coffee pods, Green Mountain Coffee has transformed the business of brew.
From ACM Opinion
Futurist Says We'll se Lasers to Beam Our Minds Into Space Someday Soon
The idea of erasing and implanting memories is a common feature of science fiction films such as Total Recall and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
From ACM Opinion
This Ingenious Touchscreen i Should Be in Every Car
There may be no greater design crime today than putting a touchscreen in an automobile.
From ACM Opinion
Jawbone Is Now the Startup Apple Should Fear Most
Jawbone is ascending into the top echelon of tech startups, joining the likes of Uber, Dropbox, and Square.
From ACM Opinion
The Strange, Deadly Effects Mars Would Have on Your Body
We've imagined sending people to Mars since well before Gagarin's first spaceflight.
From ACM Opinion
Why Startups Should Steal Ideas and Hire Weirdos
The most consistently creative and insightful people are explorers.
From ACM Opinion
Tim Berners-Lee: We Need to Re-Decentralise the Web
Twenty-five years on from the web's inception, its creator has urged the public to re-engage with its original design: a decentralised internet that at its very...
From ACM Opinion
How to Create the Perfect Online Dating Profile, in 25 Infographics
Every day, millions of singles crawl dating sites and apps, flipping through photos and profiles of potential matches.
From ACM Opinion
Judges Poised to Hand .s. Spies the Keys to the Internet
How does the NSA get the private crypto keys that allow it to bulk eavesdrop on some email providers and social networking sites?
From ACM Opinion
I Spent Two Hours Talking With the Nsa's Bigwigs. Here's What Has Them Mad
My expectations were low when I asked the National Security Agency to cooperate with my story on the impact of Edward Snowden’s leaks on the tech industry.
From ACM Opinion
Why Her Will Dominate i Design Even More Than Minority Report
A few weeks into the making of Her, Spike Jonze's new flick about romance in the age of artificial intelligence, the director had something of a breakthrough.
From ACM Opinion
The Internet of Things Is Wildly Insecure—and Often npatchable
We're at a crisis point now with regard to the security of embedded systems, where computing is embedded into the hardware itself—as with the Internet of Things...
From ACM Opinion
I, Glasshole: My Year With Google Glass
An anecdote: I wanted to wear Google Glass during the birth of our second child.
From ACM Opinion
Why We Can't Let American Tech Take Over the World
Whenever an app, a website, or a physical product like a gaming console is exported, it ships with a side of cultural influence.
From ACM Opinion
Doom's Creator Looks Back on 20 Years of Demonic Mayhem
At the stroke of midnight on December 10, 1993, an executive at id Software uploaded a file to an FTP site on the University of Washington's network.
From ACM Opinion
Answers to All the Tech Questions Your Family Will Ask You This Holiday
Maybe it's your mom and/or dad. Maybe it's a sibling or a grandparent. Or maybe it's just that one friend who still uses a Motorola Razr from the early 2000s.
From ACM Opinion
Software Is Reorganizing the World
For the first time in memory, adults in the United States under age forty are now expected to be poorer than their parents.
From ACM Opinion
A Neuroscientist's Radical Theory of How Networks Become Conscious
It's a question that’s perplexed philosophers for centuries and scientists for decades: Where does consciousness come from?
From ACM Opinion