Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2016
From ACM Opinion
Why It's So Hard For Washington to Draft Tech Companies Against the Islamic State
Here's the basic problem the government faces when it comes to stopping the Islamic State's Internet propaganda: It needs Silicon Valley's help. But some tech companies—even those that may want to work closely with Washington—find…
From ACM Opinion
Max Levchin Wants to School Lawmakers on Encryption
PayPal Inc. co-founder Max Levchin wants to make sure lawmakers know "what the hell they're talking about" when they talk about encryption.
From ACM Opinion
In 2016, Terror Suspects and 7-Eleven Thieves May Bring Surveillance to Supreme Court
It has now been 2.5 years since the first Snowden revelations were published. And in 2015, government surveillance marched on in both large (the National Security Agency) and small (the debut of open source license plate reader…
From ACM Opinion
If There Are Aliens Out There, Where Are They?
Physicist Enrico Fermi famously asked the question "Where are they?" to express his surprise over the absence of any signs for the existence of other intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy.
From ACM Opinion
Political Gifs Are the New Sound Bites This Campaign Season
Every few decades, a piece of technology comes along that alters political campaigning.
From ACM Opinion
In 2015, Promising Surveillance Cases Ran Into Legal Brick Walls
Today, the first Snowden disclosures in 2013 feel like a distant memory.
From ACM Opinion
Security's Biggest Winners and Losers in 2015
This year, lawmakers surprised us by taking initial steps—albeit, baby ones—to rein in some of the NSA's mass spying and provide better oversight of the intelligence agency's activities. It's unclear, however, if these gains…
From ACM Opinion
Learning to Apply Data Science to Business Problems
One of the most exciting parts of data science is that it can be applied to many domains of knowledge, given our newfound ability to gather valuable data on almost any topic. But, doing so effectively requires domain expertise…
From ACM Opinion
And Science's Breakthrough of the Year Is …
It was conceived after a yogurt company in 2007 identified an unexpected defense mechanism that its bacteria use to fight off viruses.
From Communications of the ACM
Where Code Comes From: Architectures of Automatic Control from Babbage to Algol
Considering the evolving concept of programming.
From Communications of the ACM
Unbalanced Data Leads to Obsolete Economic Advice
Few computer scientists and technological workers worry about their role in the economies of their industries and their countries. Background supplementary material available.
From Communications of the ACM
Why Knowledge Representation Matters
A personal story: From philosophy to software.
From Communications of the ACM
Biometric Identity
Assessing the promises and dangers of biometric identity plans.
From Communications of the ACM
The Chaos Machine
Complexity, predictability, and modern projects.
From Communications of the ACM
Extrapolating from Moore's Law
Behind and beyond Microsoft, Intel, and Apple.