Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2014
From ACM Opinion
'glass Brain' Offers Tours of the Space Between Your Ears
Former Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart takes pride in his brain.
From ACM Careers
The Google Formula For Success
Can Google’s winning ways be applied to all kinds of businesses?
From ACM Opinion
Cyborgs: The Truth About Human Augmentation
At the height of summer, when London was baking in unseasonable heat, I made an ill-fated trip to the Serpentine lido in central London.
From ACM Opinion
The Toughest Case: What If Osama Bin Laden Had an Iphone?
In rebuking Apple and Google for their new smartphone encryption polices on Thursday, FBI Director James B. Comey became the latest law enforcement official to evoke worst-case scenario arguments: What of the child predator,their…
From ACM Opinion
When Everything Works Like Your Cell Phone
Everyone understands what it means to own a plunger.
From ACM Opinion
A Computer Scientist Tells Mathematicians How To Write Proofs
Believe it or not, I do have friends who would describe themselves as not liking math, and every so often one of them will share this meme on Facebook: And then Satan said, "Put the alphabet in math."
From ACM TechNews
Jeff Hawkins on Why His Approach to AI Will Become the Approach to AI
In an interview, Numenta founder Jeff Hawkins says he expects his vision of brain-inspired artificial intelligence (AI) to win out over other approaches. He says Numenta's technology is "a foundation for the next 60, 70, 100…
From ACM Opinion
Three Questions with the Ceo of D-Wave
Vern Brownell, CEO of quantum computing startup D-Wave, says the company now has customers using its computers to tackle real problems.
From ACM Opinion
What the Inside of a Spaceship Might Really Look Like
The starship Enterprise has got to be one of the most beautiful fictional spacecraft ever created.
From ACM Opinion
Alibaba's Founder on Why His Company Is Killing It in China
Alibaba founder Jack Ma and the Notorious BIG may seem like two very different people—OK, fine, they're polar opposites—but on stage at the Clinton Global Initiative’s Annual Meeting in New York City on Wednesday, Ma made it…
From ACM Opinion
Virtual Reality Is More Than Just Video Games For Palmer Luckey
Palmer Luckey is on top of the world.
From ACM Opinion
The History of the Predator, the Drone that Changed the World
These days, the word drone is used to refer to just about any kind of remote-controlled, unmanned aircraft.
From ACM Opinion
Why Is Our Sci-Fi So Glum About A.i.?
When I was 12, I invented a superhero named Boy Genius, a guy my age who awakens one morning with access to 100 percent of his brain power.
From ACM Opinion
Visualizing 4-Dimensional Asteroids
One of the largest treasure troves of astronomical data comes from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), an ongoing scan of the firmament that began 15 years ago.
From ACM Opinion
Technology Stalled in 1970
Peter Thiel has been behind some prominent technologies: he cofounded PayPal and was an early investor in such companies as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Tesla Motors. But he’s convinced that technological progress has been stagnant…
From ACM Opinion
The Few, The Proud: The Millennials Who Still se Flip Phones
Some people care a lot about the new iPhone, available in stores Friday. This is about people who don't.
From ACM Opinion
Is Apple Watch's Pressure-Sensitive Screen a Bigger Deal Than the Gadget Itself?
Forget about the iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Pay and even the company's bold step into wearables.
From ACM Opinion
College Students Learning Cobol Make More Money
Yes, you read the title of this column correctly.
From ACM Opinion
Tim Cook Interview: The Iphone 6, the Apple Watch, and Remaking a Company's Culture
Steve Jobs’s office remains Steve Jobs's office.
From ACM Opinion
The Internet Is Losing Interest in Computers
You may know Google Trends.
From ACM Opinion
Q&a: John Durant and David Kaiser on Spurring Public Interest in Science
John Durant, director of the MIT Museum, and David Kaiser, director of MIT's Program in Science, Technology, and Society, discuss the best ways to get the general public interested in science.
From ACM Opinion
Julian Assange on Snowden, Disliking Google, and His 'inevitable' Freedom
It would be too much to say that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange feels optimistic.
From ACM Opinion
Nsa Chief on Tech-Savvy Islamic State: 'i'm Watching'
While U.S. military leaders appeared before Congress to outline their strategy to fight Islamic State militants on the battlefield, the National Security Agency chief said on Tuesday he was watching the media-savvy group's cyber…
From ACM Opinion
The $3.2 Billion Man: Can Google's Newest Star Outsmart Apple?
Lounging poolside in 93-degree July heat as Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" thrums through the patio speakers, Tony Fadell takes a sip of nonalcoholic beer and sinks far enough back into his chair that his belly peeks out from under…
From ACM Opinion
The Sci-Fi Optimist
Best-selling science-fiction writer Neal Stephenson's works cover everything from cryptography to Sumerian mythology.
From ACM Opinion
The Magic in Apple's Devices? The Heart
During the last seismic Apple announcement, in 2010, I was at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco as Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad, a device he said was so singular it would create its own landing strip.
From ACM Opinion
On Death and Ipods: A Requiem
Have you ever loved a car? Maybe it was an old truck you drove for hundreds of thousands of miles, or maybe it was your very first car: where you had your very first beer and your very first kiss.
From ACM Opinion
Steve Jobs Was a Low-Tech Parent
When Steve Jobs was running Apple, he was known to call journalists to either pat them on the back for a recent article or, more often than not, explain how they got it wrong.
From ACM Opinion
You Should Be Terrified of Superintelligent Machines
In the recent discussion over the risks of developing superintelligent machines—that is, machines with general intelligence greater than that of humans—two narratives have emerged.
From ACM Opinion
Apple's Watch Will Make People and Computers More Intimate
A fundamental quest of the digital age has been to make our devices more personal.