Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
December 2016
From ACM Opinion
You Won't Believe What Nasa Hid from US This Year
As the federal agency at the forefront of exploring outer space, NASA winds up being the front door for all manner of alien conspiracies.
From ACM Opinion
Here's What a 'digital Miranda Warning' Might Look Like
Anyone who has ever watched an American crime movie or television show can practically recite the Miranda warning by heart, even if they don't know its official name.
From ACM Opinion
How One Reporter Turned to His Readers to Investigate Donald Trump
David Fahrenthold's coverage of Donald Trump’s charities this year for The Washington Post stood out for its quality and depth. It also stood out the way he did his work.
From ACM Opinion
Tech That Will Change Your Life in 2017
If you've seen in it in a movie, you might see it in reality in 2017.
From ACM Opinion
Best Books of 2016
Our editors' picks for the best books of 2016, and some they're eagerly anticipating.
From ACM Opinion
Nasa's Overlooked Duty to Look Inward
In 1942, not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the poet Archibald MacLeish wrote an essay called "The Image of Victory," in which he asked what winning the Second World War, the "airman’s war," would mean for posterity.
…From ACM News
The Year Encryption Won
Between the revelations of mega-hacks of Yahoo and others, Russia's meddling in the US electoral system, and the recent spike in ransomware, it's easy to look at 2016 as a bleak year for security.
From ACM Opinion
2017 Sneak Peek: What the New Year Holds For Science
If the United States pulls back on its climate commitments as president-elect Donald Trump has promised, China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, could take the lead on climate-change mitigation.
From ACM Opinion
Heinlein and Clarke Discuss the Moon Landings as They Happen
Chances are that anyone in their 50s or older will remember watching Apollo 11 land on the Moon.
From ACM Opinion
Building Jarvis
My personal challenge for 2016 was to build a simple AI to run my home—like Jarvis in Iron Man.
From ACM Opinion
Dear Mr. Trump: To 'cyber' Better, Try the Blockchain
A massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack took several high-profile websites—Twitter, Amazon, the New York Times, even WIRED—offline in October.
From ACM Opinion
The Internet Is Broken. Starting from Scratch, Here's How I'd Fix It.
My big idea is that we have to fix the Internet.
From ACM Opinion
Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots at X, on the Future of Ai, Robots, and Coffeemakers
Astro Teller has an unusual way of starting a new project: He tries to kill it.
From ACM Opinion
A World of Surveillance Doesn't Always Help to Catch a Thief
Earlier this year, I had a beer in one of the more budget-conscious bars in the Mission district. My wallet stayed a little later than I did.
From ACM Opinion
If Only AI Could Save s from Ourselves
Humans have broken the Internet.
From ACM Opinion
If We Made Contact with Aliens, How Would Religions React?
In 2014, Nasa awarded $1.1M to the Center for Theological Inquiry, an ecumenical research institute in New Jersey, to study “the societal implications of astrobiology”.
From ACM Opinion
Artificial Intelligence Has a Big Year Ahead
Get ready for AI to show up where you'd least expect it.
From ACM Opinion
Nasa Science Chief: 'i Have No Worries About the Resilience of This Country'
Solar physicist Thomas Zurbuchen became NASA's science chief in October, replacing astronaut John Grunsfeld. Just one month later, the US political system went through a seismic shift when Donald Trump was elected president.
…From ACM Opinion
Where Will Nasa Go in the Age of Trump?
Two weeks after a presidential election that could have vaulted him to the head of NASA, John Grunsfeld reached across his peanut curry at a small restaurant on the Far West Side of Manhattan, grabbed my notebook and sketched…
From ACM Opinion
Cybersecurity's Next Phase: cyber-Deterrence
Cyberattackers pose many threats to a wide range of targets. Russia, for example, was accused of hacking Democratic Party computers throughout the year, interfering with the U.S. presidential election.
From ACM Opinion
Three Touchy Questions For Tech Leaders to Ask Trump
Few in the technology sector besides Peter Thiel had much love for Donald Trump during the presidential campaign.
From ACM Opinion
Trump Ignoring S Intelligence Creates Risks Beyond Russian Hacking
Observers and alumni of America's intelligence community have already fretted over Donald Trump's impending control of the world's most powerful spy agencies.
From ACM Opinion
Two Friends Who Changed How We Think About How We Think
In 2003, we reviewed "Moneyball," Michael Lewis's book about Billy Beane and the Oakland A's
From ACM Opinion
The Cynical Gambit to Make 'fake News' Meaningless
For a term that is suddenly everywhere, "fake news" is fairly slippery.
From ACM Opinion
Despite Its Promise, the Internet of Things Remains Vulnerable
More and more of the things we use every day are being connected to the Internet.
From ACM Opinion
The Gadget Apocalypse Is pon S
Remember gadgets?
From ACM Opinion
Mr. Robot Killed the Hollywood Hacker
For decades Hollywood has treated computers as magic boxes from which endless plot points could be conjured, in denial of all common sense.
From ACM News
Google, Democracy and the Truth About Internet Search
Here's what you don’t want to do late on a Sunday night. You do not want to type seven letters into Google. That's all I did.
From ACM Opinion
Sue Over Fake News? Not So Fast
The latest controversy involving so-called fake news has left many wondering why websites that publish patently false statements on the Internet have not been prosecuted or sued for money damages.
From ACM Opinion
Earth, the Final Frontier
On April 1, 1960, the newly established National Aeronautics and Space Administration heaved a 270-pound box of electronics into Earth orbit.