Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
October 2014
From ACM Opinion
Megan Smith: 'you Can Affect Billions of People'
Now that you work at the White House, approximately how many times a day do you find yourself thinking, God, we did this so much better at Google?
From ACM Opinion
Human Spaceflight: Find Asteroids to Get to Mars
Interplanetary flight is the next giant leap for humans in space. Yet consensus on even the smallest steps forward has proven elusive.
From ACM Opinion
Demystifying the Mooc
When massive open online courses first grabbed the spotlight in 2011, many saw in them promise of a revolutionary force that would disrupt traditional higher education by expanding access and reducing costs.
From ACM TechNews
The Robot in the Cloud: A Conversation With Ken Goldberg
University of California, Berkeley professor Ken Goldberg is establishing a research center that will focus on developing surgical robots.
From ACM Opinion
Why All Employees Must Learn to Code
The most important technological skill for all employees is being able to code.
From ACM Opinion
Why Rite Aid and Cvs Stopped Taking Apple Pay
The introduction of Apple Pay last Monday was widely described as the dawn of a new era for smartphone payments.
From ACM Opinion
The Three Breakthroughs That Have Finally nleashed AI on the World
A few months ago I made the trek to the sylvan campus of the IBM research labs in Yorktown Heights, New York, to catch an early glimpse of the fast-arriving, long-overdue future of artificial intelligence.
From ACM Opinion
Vimeo Tech Chief Takes on 'terrifying' Online Video Challenges
Think online video is old hat? Think again.
From ACM Opinion
When Iphones Ring, the Economy Listens
Gloomy economic news and the wild swings of the stock market may be getting you down. But at least you can count on this: We’ve entered the sweet spot of the iPhone cycle.
From Communications of the ACM
An Embarrassment of Riches
A critical review of open innovation systems.
From ACM Opinion
Could Robots Become Too Cute For Comfort?
Would you share your innermost secret with a robot?
From ACM Opinion
William Gibson Writes the Future
William Gibson lives in an overwhelmingly green suburb with old-money roots south of Vancouver's downtown, and it is in this suburb that I am currently wandering, looking for William Gibson.
From ACM Opinion
Christine Kenneally's 'invisible History of the Human Race'
Of Christine Kenneally’s father’s father—a man neither Kenneally nor her father ever knew, a man who did the deed requisite to reproduction and promptly vanished—she asks, "Did he leave anything more significant than the loud…
From ACM Opinion
Machine-Learning Maestro Michael Jordan on the Delusions of Big Data and Other Huge Engineering Efforts
The overeager adoption of big data is likely to result in catastrophes of analysis comparable to a national epidemic of collapsing bridges.
From ACM TechNews
Q&a With Futurist Martine Rothblatt
In an interview, satellite radio pioneer and futurist Martine Rothblatt says she believes there is little doubt humans will eventually invent ways to create virtual people and fully digital consciousnesses.
From ACM Opinion
Okcupid's Xoxo For Big Surveillance
Christian Rudder is a good writer—so good, in fact, it's easy for readers of Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One’s Looking) to be smitten by his engaging and funny stories.
From ACM Opinion
Isaac Asimov Mulls 'how Do People Get New Ideas?'
In 1959, I worked as a scientist at Allied Research Associates in Boston.
From ACM Opinion
In Conversation Marc Andreessen
It's not hard to coax an opinion out of Marc Andreessen.
From ACM Opinion
To Siri, With Love
Just how bad a mother am I? I wondered, as I watched my 13-year-old son deep in conversation with Siri.
From ACM Opinion
The Holder of Secrets
From the garden terrace of a sixth-floor walkup on a quiet Berlin street, there was a clear view to the TV Tower, in Alexanderplatz.
From ACM Opinion
Fbi Director on Privacy, Electronic Surveillance
James Comey, the director of the FBI, says the Internet is the most dangerous parking lot imaginable.
From ACM Opinion
How Big Data Algorithms See s—while They Eat S p
Four years ago I interviewed Sam Yagan, then CEO of OKCupid, about the mathematics underlying his free matchmaking site.
From ACM Opinion
Countering Tech's Damaging Effect on Jobs
Advances in information and communications technology are destroying more jobs in advanced economies than the advances are creating. This poses a political challenge for governments throughout the developed world.
From ACM Opinion
The Adultery Arms Race
Jay's wife, Ann, was supposed to be out of town on business.
From ACM Opinion
The August Smart Lock Shows Why You Should Stick With Dumb Keys
You almost certainly don't need a digital smart lock for your front door.
From ACM Opinion
Why Germans Are Afraid of Google
These days Germany is known for being many things: a leader in clean technology, a manufacturing powerhouse, Europe's foreign policy center.
From ACM Opinion
Find Out What Your Zip Code Predicts You'll Buy
Where you live says a lot about you—and nobody knows that better than marketeers. Now, though, you can take a glimpse at what they know, using this searchable map built by software company Esri.
From ACM Opinion
5 Insights from Vint Cerf on Bitcoin, Net Neutrality and More
When Vint Cerf, often called the "father of the Internet," is speaking, it's wise to listen.
From ACM Opinion
Google's Schmidt Fires Back Over Encryption
To hear Google Inc. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt tell it, the U.S. government has only itself to blame for new efforts by Google and Apple Inc. to keep police out of suspects' smartphones.
From ACM Opinion
The Myth of the Lone Genius
The computer and the Internet are among the most important inventions of our era, but few people know who created them.