Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2016
From ACM Opinion
Why Russian Hackers Probably Can't Mess with the .s. Election
State-sponsored Russian hackers appear to be behind attacks on voter databases in Arizona and Illinois.
From ACM Opinion
Here's How Russian Hackers Could Actually Tip an American Election
Reports this week of Russian intrusions into U.S. election systems have startled many voters, but computer experts are not surprised.
From ACM Opinion
Orwell Was Right: Oliver Stone on What Makes Snowden Exciting
Oliver Stone wants you to know he's not an activist.
From ACM Opinion
How Electronic Voting Could ndermine the Election
It's 2016: What possible reason is there to vote on paper? When we use touchscreens to communicate, work, and shop, why can't we use similar technology to vote?
From ACM Opinion
The Hype, and Hope, of Artificial Intelligence
Earlier this month, on his HBO show "Last Week Tonight," John Oliver skewered media companies' desperate search for clicks.
From ACM News
All the Ways Your Wi-Fi Router Can Spy on You
City dwellers spend nearly every moment of every day awash in Wi-Fi signals.
From ACM Opinion
20 Big Questions About the Future of Humanity
1. Does humanity have a future beyond Earth?
From ACM Opinion
You'll Never Guess This One Crazy Thing Governs Online Speech
Early last week, Twitter announced that it would be using new tools to curb hate speech and harassment on its site.
From ACM Opinion
At 25, the World Wide Web Is Still a Long Way From Reality
Twenty-five years ago today, Tim Berners-Lee unleashed the World Wide Web, publishing the first public webpage. Well, maybe.
From ACM Opinion
Ai's Research Rut
When we think of AI as one particular thing, we drag the whole field down.
From ACM Opinion
Obama's Science Legacy: Betting Big on Biomedical Science
When president-elect Barack Obama chose physicist John Holdren as his top science adviser in December 2008, some biomedical researchers worried that the pick signalled a White House bias towards physical science.
From ACM Opinion
Space, Climate Change, and the Real Meaning of Theory
I used to be an astronaut, a spacewalker on the International Space Station.
From ACM Opinion
Why Facebook Is Really Blocking the Ad Blockers
Ads can seem like the bane of the Internet.
From ACM Opinion
Mind-Controlled Robo-Skeleton Enables Paraplegics to Regain Some Motion
Patients paralyzed by a spinal cord injury can face a grim and grueling recovery process—one in which regaining function is far from a sure thing. But a new study published last week in Scientific Reports may provide some hope…
From ACM Opinion
How to Read Between the Lines of Tim Cook's Epic Interview
To celebrate five years as CEO of Apple, Tim Cook has given a very long, exclusive interview to the Washington Post about his experiences so far. But what he didn’t say is just as interesting as what he did.
From ACM Opinion
Tim Cook: Running Apple 'is Sort of a Lonely Job'
On a sleek white coffee table in Apple CEO Tim Cook's fourth-floor office in late July, beneath framed posters of Robert F. Kennedy, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Jackie Robinson, a rose gold iPhone 6s sits in its original…
From ACM Opinion
The Brave New World of Robots and Lost Jobs
Job insecurity is a central theme of the 2016 campaign, fueling popular anger about trade deals and immigration. But economists warn that much bigger job losses are ahead in the United States—driven not by foreign competition…
From ACM Opinion
What Virtual Reality Is Good For
After years as a punchline, virtual reality is enjoying a renaissance. Venture capitalists plowed $1.2 billion into virtual-reality and augmented-reality startups in the first quarter of 2016, according to a report by Digi-Capital—more…
From ACM Opinion
All Alone in No Man's Sky
If reality is a game—a vast, snow-globe-y sort of experiment that plays out according to the hard rules of physics and the loose rules of story—then it is, in contemporary game-design parlance, a persistent one.
From ACM Opinion
World Should Consider Limits to Future Internet Expansion to Control Energy Consumption
The world should consider ways to limit data growth on the internet to prevent run-away energy consumption and help limit carbon emissions, say leading computer scientists.
From ACM Opinion
Marconi Forged Today's Interconnected World of Communication
At Guglielmo Marconi's grand state funeral in Rome in 1937—orchestrated with military-style pomp by the black-shirted Benito Mussolini—the largest wreath on the hearse, adorned with a Nazi swastika, was sent by Adolf Hitler.
From ACM Opinion
Hydrogen Molecule Falls to Quantum Computer
We are at the beginning of a revolution. I've been going on about quantum computing for as long as I've been writing, but it has always been in the future tense.
From ACM Opinion
Why Save a Computer Virus?
On average, 82,000 new malware threats are created each day.
From ACM Opinion
Presidential Campaigns Are Talking Around The Robot In The Room
While U.S. presidential candidates are talking about tax rates, tax breaks, and trade — they are ignoring an economic issue that soon may matter far more to working Americans: robots.
From ACM Opinion
Can We Trust Julian Assange and Wikileaks?
The release of a cache of emails from the Democratic National Committee by WikiLeaks last month has raised a great many questions—about the role of the D.N.C. in trying to influence the primary and about the alleged interference…
From ACM Opinion
After Fatality, Autonomous Car Development May Speed p
The world has witnessed enormous advances in autonomous passenger vehicle technologies over the last dozen years.
From ACM Opinion
Take Responsibility For Electronic-Waste Disposal
The world is producing ever more electrical and electronic waste.
From ACM Opinion
Remembering a Thinker Who Thought About Thinking
The field of educational technology is mourning a visionary whose work was considered 50 years ahead of its time.
From ACM Opinion
The World's Best Cyber Army Doesn't Belong to Russia
National attention is focused on Russian eavesdroppers' possible targeting of U.S. presidential candidates and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
From ACM Opinion
Google's Driverless-Car Czar on Taking the Human Out of the Equation
You devoted your life to human-driven transportation, engineering SUVs at Ford and taking Hyundai (as U.S. CEO and president) to record levels of sales in the U.S. Why did you go driverless?