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Beyond Touch: Tomorrow's Devices Will ­se Mems ­ltrasound to Hear Your Gestures
From ACM Opinion

Beyond Touch: Tomorrow's Devices Will ­se Mems ­ltrasound to Hear Your Gestures

Today, we control our electronic world by touch—we tap, we swipe, we pinch and zoom.

The New Words That Expose Our Smartphone Obsessions
From ACM Opinion

The New Words That Expose Our Smartphone Obsessions

New words sometimes skewer a trend so perfectly you wonder how you survived without them. One of the most delightfully apt new phrases I've found in the last few...

Misinformation on Social Media: Can Technology Save us?
From ACM Opinion

Misinformation on Social Media: Can Technology Save us?

If you get your news from social media, as most Americans do, you are exposed to a daily dose of hoaxes, rumors, conspiracy theories and misleading news.

Manufacturing Jobs Aren't Coming Back
From ACM Opinion

Manufacturing Jobs Aren't Coming Back

Pundits will debate the wellsprings of Donald Trump's election triumph for years.

Time to Dump Time Zones
From ACM Opinion

Time to Dump Time Zones

We will awaken Sunday to yet another disturbance in the chronosphere—our twice-yearly jolt from resetting the clocks, mechanical and biological.

The Lost Civilization of Dial-­p Bulletin Board Systems
From ACM Opinion

The Lost Civilization of Dial-­p Bulletin Board Systems

I have a vivid, recurring dream. I climb the stairs in my parents' house to see my old bedroom. In the back corner, I hear a faint humming.

The Security Challenges of Online Voting Have Not Gone Away
From ACM Opinion

The Security Challenges of Online Voting Have Not Gone Away

Online voting is sometimes heralded as a solution to all our election headaches.

Why Robots Must Learn to Tell ­S 'no'
From ACM Opinion

Why Robots Must Learn to Tell ­S 'no'

HAL 9000, the sentient computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, offers an ominous glimpse of a future in which machines endowed with artificial intelligence reject human...

Today's Artificial Intelligence Does Not Justify Basic Income
From ACM Opinion

Today's Artificial Intelligence Does Not Justify Basic Income

Not a day goes by when we do not hear about the threat of AI taking over the jobs of everyone from truck drivers to accountants to radiologists.

America Isn't Ready For a Cyberattack
From ACM Opinion

America Isn't Ready For a Cyberattack

The recent cyberattack that rendered more than 1,200 websites unreachable was a warning. Experts say a similar, or larger, attack could be launched tomorrow, and...

E-Voting Refuses to Die Even Though It's Neither Secure Nor Secret
From ACM Opinion

E-Voting Refuses to Die Even Though It's Neither Secure Nor Secret

In theory, using the internet or e-mail to vote for the U.S. president sounds like a good idea.

Visualization to Understand Ecosystems
From Communications of the ACM

Visualization to Understand Ecosystems

Mapping relationships between stakeholders in an ecosystem to increase understanding and make better-informed strategic decisions.

Who Oversees Data Brokers Selling Your Personal Info? No One
From ACM Opinion

Who Oversees Data Brokers Selling Your Personal Info? No One

You probably already know that you have precious little privacy, and that shadowy data brokers have built the buying and selling of people’s personal information...

Vulnerability Is the Internet's Original Sin
From ACM Opinion

Vulnerability Is the Internet's Original Sin

On the day (perhaps not long from now) when the entire internet crashes, no one will be able to say that we didn’t see it coming.

A.i. Inspiration: The Science Fiction That Frames Discussion
From ACM Opinion

A.i. Inspiration: The Science Fiction That Frames Discussion

Science fiction comes up often in serious discussions about artificial intelligence and weapons.

Mark Zuckerberg's Long March to China
From ACM Opinion

Mark Zuckerberg's Long March to China

For U.S. Internet businesses, China is the land of moral defeat.

Whoever Wins the White House, This Year's Big Loser Is Email
From ACM Opinion

Whoever Wins the White House, This Year's Big Loser Is Email

Every four years, pundits race to anoint this or that newfangled tech trend as the next disruptive force to forever alter the mechanics of American democracy.

George Orwell Never Dreamed of Advertising as Invasive as Yahoo's Proposal
From ACM Opinion

George Orwell Never Dreamed of Advertising as Invasive as Yahoo's Proposal

Yahoo wants to take advertising to the next level—that is, the Orwellian level—bombarding people in public places with targeted advertising served up by the surveillance...

How to Turn Your Self-Driving Car Into a Time Machine
From ACM Opinion

How to Turn Your Self-Driving Car Into a Time Machine

The self-driving car's greatest promise is that it will buy its passengers that most precious and finite of resources: time.

Welcome Your New Robot Overlords: Humans
From ACM Opinion

Welcome Your New Robot Overlords: Humans

I became a robot.
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