Communications of the ACM
The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
September 2015
From ACM Opinion
How Chicago Got Smart About Sensors
I've been excited about the Array of Things—a network of beautifully designed sensors poised to capture and make public real-time, non-personal data about the livability of a city—ever since it (they?) started following me on…
From ACM Opinion
How to Get to Mars ... And Maybe Even Live There
There's something about the Red Planet—so close yet so far, inhospitable yet perhaps not totally uninhabitable—that keeps us dreaming about getting there one day.
From ACM Opinion
Modelling: Build Imprecise Supercomputers
Today's supercomputers lack the power to model accurately many aspects of the real world, from the impact of cloud systems on Earth's climate to the processing ability of the human brain.
From ACM Opinion
Searching For Life in Martian Water Will Be Very, Very Tricky
NASA scientists announced today the best evidence yet that Mars, once thought dry, sterile and dead, may yet have life in it: Liquid water still flows on at least some parts of the Red Planet, seeping from slopes to accumulate…
From ACM Opinion
Openbci: Control An Air Shark With Your Mind
Le's be clear: This is a parlor trick, not neuroscience. Nonetheless, with the help of some friends, I was able to make a toy shark fly through the air using brain waves.
From ACM Opinion
Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.
College students tell me they know how to look someone in the eye and type on their phones at the same time, their split attention undetected.
From ACM Opinion
How Tetris Explains the Promise of the ltimate Algorithm
Pedro Domingos is a serious guy with big ambitions.
From ACM TechNews
Who Is Driving Then?
In an interview, professors Hermann Winner and Walther Wachenfeld from the Technical University of Darmstadt's Automotive Engineering research group discuss autonomous driving's risks, challenges, and opportunities.
From ACM Opinion
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love A.i.
The distinction between man and machine is under siege.
From ACM Careers
Why Europe Isn't Creating Any Googles or Facebooks
Micha Benoliel grew up in France and launched his first technology startup there, but he never forgot the atmosphere of adventure and optimism in San Francisco, where he studied in the early 1990s.
From ACM Opinion
Big Tech Has Become Way Too Powerful
Conservatives and liberals interminably debate the merits of "the free market" versus "the government."
From ACM Opinion
Tomorrow's Terrorist
Terrorism is a game of both revolution and evolution.
From ACM Opinion
We're on the Brink of a Revolution in Crazy-Smart Digital Assistants
Here's a quick story you’ve probably heard before, followed by one you probably haven't.
From ACM Opinion
Facebook's Cyborg Virtual Assistant Is Learning from Its Trainers
Late last month a few hundred lucky users of Facebook's mobile messaging app got an unusual new contact to talk with: M, a virtual assistant powered by a mixture of algorithms and human operators.
From ACM Opinion
Brynjolfsson and Mcafee: The Jobs that AI Can't Replace
At the heart of capitalism is the concept of creative destruction.
From ACM Opinion
The False Science of Cryonics
I woke up on Saturday to a heartbreaking front-page article in the New York Times about a terminally ill young woman who chooses to freeze her brain.
From ACM Opinion
Do We Need to Prepare For the Robot prising?
For most of my life, I've been disappointed in robots.
From ACM Opinion
Making AI Work in the Real World
Until recently, AI seemed firmly stuck in the realm of science fiction.
From ACM Opinion
How ic Narrows Gender Gap Among Science, Technology Professors
Mitra Dutta, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, explains how a $3.3 million NSF grant has improved UIC's gender balance of science and engineer professors.
From ACM Opinion
Mark Zuckerberg and the End of Language
Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg hosted an online Q&A session on his personal Facebook page.
From ACM Opinion
sing Technology to Break the Speed Barrier of Reading
I grew up in a tiny New York City apartment, packed in alongside our four cats and my father's immense personal library of some 3000 books.
From ACM TechNews
I've Taught Computers to Paint Portraits — and How to Code
Falmouth University professor Simon Colton works with software that behaves in ways that would be deemed creative if observed in humans. In an interview, Colton describes his work with software which is programmed to make its…
From ACM Opinion
The Next Not-So-Cold War: As Climate Change Heats Arctic, Nations Scramble For Control and Resources
President Barack Obama arrived in Alaska on Monday for a three-day tour during which he will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Alaska Arctic.
From ACM News
Hundreds of 'black Hat' English Wikipedia Accounts Blocked Following Investigation
After weeks of investigation, volunteer editors on English Wikipedia announced that they blocked 381 user accounts for "black hat" editing.
From ACM Opinion
You Can't nderstand Security Without These Classic Works
There are seminal books, movies, articles, and more that you've been meaning to get to but just haven't made the time for.
From ACM Opinion
A Beginner's Guide to Invisibility
It is possible, according to many sources, to become invisible, but you must be patient, methodical, and willing to eat almost anything.
From Communications of the ACM
The Value of Social Theories For Global Computing
Conceptual toolkits for projects that work.
From Communications of the ACM
Innovators Assemble: Ada Lovelace, Walter Isaacson, and the Superheroines of Computing
Can computing history be both inspiring and accurate?
From Communications of the ACM
The Pros and Cons of the 'PACM' Proposal: Point
In "Should Conferences Meet Journals and Where?" ACM Publications Board co-chairs Joseph A. Konstan and Jack W. Davidson introduce a proposal that would interweave conference and journal publishing. Here, computer scientist Kathryn…
From Communications of the ACM
The Pros and Cons of the 'PACM' Proposal: Counterpoint
In "Should Conferences Meet Journals and Where?" ACM Publications Board co-chairs Joseph A. Konstan and Jack W. Davidson introduce a proposal that would interweave conference and journal publishing. Here, computer scientist David…