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The Peril of Knowledge Everywhere
From ACM Opinion

The Peril of Knowledge Everywhere

Thanks to advances in technology, we may soon revisit a question raised four centuries ago: Are there things we should try not to know?

The Move Toward Computing That Reads Your Mind
From ACM Opinion

The Move Toward Computing That Reads Your Mind

Like many people in this modern world, I struggle with the tension between the conveniences offered by the latest technology and the loss of privacy that comes...

The Cloud Industry Needs Aereo to Win. But Consumers Need Something Better.
From ACM Opinion

The Cloud Industry Needs Aereo to Win. But Consumers Need Something Better.

The best way to think about Aereo, the company at the center of this week's Supreme Court battle over the future of computing, is as an example of legal performance...

If You Like Immersion, You'll Love This Reality
From ACM Opinion

If You Like Immersion, You'll Love This Reality

The news that Facebook paid $2 billion for a virtual reality start-up, Oculus VR, might strike you as a bit zany.

Hey, Robot: Which Cat Is Cuter?
From ACM Opinion

Hey, Robot: Which Cat Is Cuter?

One recent morning, while contemplating writing this column, I scrolled through thousands and thousands of listings for mundane microgigs on Mechanical Turk, or...

From ACM Opinion

Abstract Ideas Don't Deserve Patents

The Constitution gives Congress the power to grant inventors a temporary monopoly over their creations to "promote the progress of science and useful arts."

Discovering Two Screens Aren't Better Than One
From ACM Opinion

Discovering Two Screens Aren't Better Than One

For years, techies have argued that getting an extra monitor or two for your desktop computer is an especially effective way to increase personal productivity.

Flight 370 and the Terror of Being Off the Grid
From ACM Opinion

Flight 370 and the Terror of Being Off the Grid

How can a commercial airliner go missing?

The Future of Internet Freedom
From ACM Opinion

The Future of Internet Freedom

Over the next decade, approximately five billion people will become connected to the Internet.

From ACM Opinion

Waiting For the Black Box

Days after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 shortly after midnight on Saturday, investigators considering a range of possible causes—mechanical...

How I Quit Google
From ACM Opinion

How I Quit Google

I think it was the search for "pink glitter tiny toms" that finally prompted me to quit Google.

How to Get a Job at Google
From ACM Opinion

How to Get a Job at Google

Last June, in an interview with Adam Bryant of The Times, Laszlo Bock, the senior vice president of people operations for Google—i.e., the guy in charge of hiring...

Social Media, a Trove of Clues and Confessions
From ACM Opinion

Social Media, a Trove of Clues and Confessions

It seems as if every week there's a news story about someone committing a crime and confessing to it on Facebook, bragging about it on Twitter or sharing photos...

Is the ­niverse a Simulation?
From ACM Opinion

Is the ­niverse a Simulation?

In Mikhail Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita," the protagonist, a writer, burns a manuscript in a moment of despair, only to find out later from the Devil...

The Digital Ties That Bind: Love, Loss and Oversharing in the Internet Age
From ACM Opinion

The Digital Ties That Bind: Love, Loss and Oversharing in the Internet Age

The most serious relationship of my life so far ended last summer without a trace—physically at least.

Bitcoin and the Fictions of Money
From ACM Opinion

Bitcoin and the Fictions of Money

How should we think about a currency like Bitcoin?

Why Bitcoin Matters
From ACM Opinion

Why Bitcoin Matters

A mysterious new technology emerges, seemingly out of nowhere, but actually the result of two decades of intense research and development by nearly anonymous researchers...

When Doctors 'google' Their Patients
From ACM Opinion

When Doctors 'google' Their Patients

I remember when I first looked up a patient on Google.

Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower
From ACM Opinion

Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower

Seven months ago, the world began to learn the vast scope of the National Security Agency's reach into the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the United...

Civilian Photography, Now Rising to New Level
From ACM Opinion

Civilian Photography, Now Rising to New Level

Five years ago, the DJI Phantom 2 Vision would have seemed like a science fiction film prop or a piece of surveillance hardware flown only by the sexiest of superspies...
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