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The Government Needs to Work with Silicon Valley to Create Our Military Future
From ACM Opinion

The Government Needs to Work with Silicon Valley to Create Our Military Future

In 1931, the city fathers of Sunnyvale, California, came up with a unique plan to rescue their town from the doldrums of the Great Depression.

Nine Real Nasa Technologies in 'the Martian'
From ACM News

Nine Real Nasa Technologies in 'the Martian'

Mars has held a central place in human imagination and culture for millennia.

In Search of the Keys to the Virtual City
From ACM Opinion

In Search of the Keys to the Virtual City

I'm not the first man to believe that he might fix London.

Why Neuroscience Needs Hackers
From ACM Opinion

Why Neuroscience Needs Hackers

There was a time when neuroscientists could only dream of having such a problem.

Psychiatry Is Reinventing Itself Thanks to Advances in Biology
From ACM Opinion

Psychiatry Is Reinventing Itself Thanks to Advances in Biology

A revolution is under way in psychiatry. The science underpinning this discipline has in the past shifted from psychology to pharmacology, and now it is changing...

What Is Elegance in Science?
From ACM Opinion

What Is Elegance in Science?

In 1957, a few years after Francis Crick co-discovered the DNA double helix and a few years before he co-won a Nobel Prize for doing so, he published a paper on...

The Pros and Cons of the 'PACM' Proposal
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...

Automated Education and the Professional
From Communications of the ACM

Automated Education and the Professional

Technology boffins argue the new technologies of intelligent personal learning environments will put universities out of business. Will the purported successor,...

Move Over, Siri—the Next Generation of Virtual Assistants Is Almost Here
From ACM Opinion

Move Over, Siri—the Next Generation of Virtual Assistants Is Almost Here

Virtual voice-controlled assistants such as Siri, Cortana and Google Now are magical.

It's Operating Systems Vs. Messaging Apps In The Battle For Tech's Next Frontier
From ACM Opinion

It's Operating Systems Vs. Messaging Apps In The Battle For Tech's Next Frontier

As mobile devices continue to explore and colonize the technology landscape, their conquests are leading us to a new era, beyond search and apps.

The Amazingly Accurate Futurism of 2001: A Space Odyssey
From ACM Opinion

The Amazingly Accurate Futurism of 2001: A Space Odyssey

The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s "2001: A Space Odyssey" documents in nearly scientific detail exactly that: the story of how the iconic science-fiction film came...

The End of the Internet Dream
From ACM Opinion

The End of the Internet Dream

Twenty years ago I attended my first Def Con. I believed in a free, open, reliable, interoperable Internet: a place where anyone can say anything, and anyone who...

We Flew a Simulated 747 at Nasa and Didn't Crash or Barf
From ACM Opinion

We Flew a Simulated 747 at Nasa and Didn't Crash or Barf

From a viewing spot in a high bay room at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, I peer through a glass window at a cab that simulates the cockpit of a commercial...

Apple Carplay Review: Siri's Finally on the Right Road
From ACM Opinion

Apple Carplay Review: Siri's Finally on the Right Road

I take back all—OK most—of the expletives I’ve ever hurled at Siri.

Robot Weapons: What's the Harm?
From ACM Opinion

Robot Weapons: What's the Harm?

Last month over a thousand scientists and tech-world luminaries, including Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and Steve Wozniak, released an open letter calling for a global...

Humans, Not Robots, Are the Real Reason Artificial Intelligence Is Scary
From ACM Opinion

Humans, Not Robots, Are the Real Reason Artificial Intelligence Is Scary

Unfortunately, much of the recent outcry against artificial-intelligence weapons has been confused, conjuring robot takeovers of mankind.

Will Artificial Intelligence Surpass Our Own?
From ACM Opinion

Will Artificial Intelligence Surpass Our Own?

Famed science-fiction writer Fredric Brown (1906–1972) delighted in creating the shortest of short stories. "Answer," published in 1954, encapsulated a prescient...

Let's School the Presidential Hopefuls on Cybersecurity
From ACM Opinion

Let's School the Presidential Hopefuls on Cybersecurity

In the build up to the 2016 U.S. election, both Democratic and Republican presidential hopefuls are talking about cybersecurity—and specifically state-sponsored...

For Virtual-Reality Movies, Old Methods Don't Fit New Medium
From ACM News

For Virtual-Reality Movies, Old Methods Don't Fit New Medium

I'm standing on the bow of what looks to be a sunken pirate ship.

The Backbone of the Internet Could Detect Earthquakes, but No One's ­sing It
From ACM News

The Backbone of the Internet Could Detect Earthquakes, but No One's ­sing It

December 26, 2004: It is an idyllic morning at a beachside resort in Indonesia.
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