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The Enduring Legacy of Zork
From ACM Opinion

The Enduring Legacy of Zork

In 1977, four recent MIT graduates who'd met at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science used the lab's PDP-10 mainframe to develop a computer game that captivated...

Tracing the Sources of Today's Russian cyberthreat
From ACM Opinion

Tracing the Sources of Today's Russian cyberthreat

Beyond carrying all of our phone, text and internet communications, cyberspace is an active battleground, with cybercriminals, government agents and even military...

What the Announced nsa / Cyber Command Split means
From ACM Opinion

What the Announced nsa / Cyber Command Split means

The move to elevate Cyber Command to a full Unified Combatant Command and split it off from the National Security Agency or NSA shows that cyber intelligence collection...

Fighting Neo-Nazis and the Future of Free Expression
From ACM Opinion

Fighting Neo-Nazis and the Future of Free Expression

In the wake of Charlottesville, both GoDaddy and Google have refused to manage the domain registration for the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website that, in the...

Russia's Election Meddling Backfired—big-Time
From ACM Opinion

Russia's Election Meddling Backfired—big-Time

Intelligence officers sometimes talk about "blowback," when covert actions go bad and end up damaging the country that initiated them.

Everyone Thinks That Automation Will Take Our Jobs. The Evidence Disagrees
From ACM Opinion

Everyone Thinks That Automation Will Take Our Jobs. The Evidence Disagrees

Last year, the Japanese company SoftBank opened a cell phone store in Tokyo and staffed it entirely with sales associates named Pepper. This wasn't as hard as it...

Magical Technologies Just Over the Horizon
From ACM Opinion

Magical Technologies Just Over the Horizon

We the people have always been helplessly drawn to the concept of magic: the notion that you can will something to happen by wiggling your nose, speaking special...

Why Video Games Are Obsessed With the Apocalypse
From ACM Opinion

Why Video Games Are Obsessed With the Apocalypse

Video games are, in a way, the perfect medium through which to depict the post-apocalypse. If we assume that after the collapse of civilisation everyone will revert...

Tracking the Spread of Culture Through Folktales
From ACM Opinion

Tracking the Spread of Culture Through Folktales

There's a reason why the premise of American Gods is so alluring: the US is home to a wild and glorious mishmash of gods, folktales, and cultural heritage.

End-to-End Encryption Isn't Enough Security For 'real people'
From ACM Opinion

End-to-End Encryption Isn't Enough Security For 'real people'

Government officials continue to seek technology companies' help fighting terrorism and crime. But the most commonly proposed solution would severely limit regular...

We Can Stop Hacking and Trolls, but It Would Ruin the Internet
From ACM Opinion

We Can Stop Hacking and Trolls, but It Would Ruin the Internet

Cyberterrorism fears are through the roof.

Kids Should Know How to Code
From ACM Opinion

Kids Should Know How to Code

During a recent White House meeting with President Donald Trump, Apple CEO Tim Cook remarked that "coding should be a requirement in every public school." 

Preserving the Right to Cognitive Liberty
From ACM Opinion

Preserving the Right to Cognitive Liberty

The idea of the human mind as the domain of absolute protection from external intrusion has persisted for centuries.

Tracking Terrorists Online Might Invade Your Privacy
From ACM Opinion

Tracking Terrorists Online Might Invade Your Privacy

Remember that picture you sent to your family of your children playing in the paddling pool? Or that private text you sent to someone trusted? Or when you searched...

Bot and Bothered
From ACM Opinion

Bot and Bothered

Facebook has been working on artificial intelligence that claims to be great at negotiating, makes up its own language and learns to lie.

Human Vs. Machine Contests (real or Fictional) But Involving Ordinary Humans
From ACM Opinion

Human Vs. Machine Contests (real or Fictional) But Involving Ordinary Humans

I'm looking for a famous (or at least interesting) human vs. machine contest to use as an analogy in an article.

Fear of a Robot Planet
From ACM Opinion

Fear of a Robot Planet

It was in the 12th century that the great brass head built by Albertus Magnus moved its mouth for the first time, breathing steam as it spoke to Magnus' young religious...

The Attack on Global Privacy Leaves Few Places to Turn
From ACM Opinion

The Attack on Global Privacy Leaves Few Places to Turn

Digital privacy has had a very bad summer. As China and Russia move to block virtual private network services, well over a billion people face losing their best...

Editing Human Embryos with Crispr Is Moving Ahead; Now's the Time to Work Out the Ethics
From ACM Opinion

Editing Human Embryos with Crispr Is Moving Ahead; Now's the Time to Work Out the Ethics

The announcement by researchers in Portland, Oregon that they've successfully modified the genetic material of a human embryo took some people by surprise.

Apple Is Pulling Vpns from the Chinese App Store. Here's What that Means. 
From ACM Opinion

Apple Is Pulling Vpns from the Chinese App Store. Here's What that Means. 

China's restrictive Internet policies are known for blocking Web users who want to reach Google, Facebook or other banned apps. But now some of those policies are...
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