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Hey Silicon Valley: President Obama Has a To-Do List For You
From ACM Opinion

Hey Silicon Valley: President Obama Has a To-Do List For You

Ask not what the government can do for Silicon Valley; ask what Silicon Valley can do for the government.

Dwarf Planets Aren't Big News, Because Astronomy Is Doing a Great Job
From ACM Opinion

Dwarf Planets Aren't Big News, Because Astronomy Is Doing a Great Job

Last week, astronomers  announced the discovery of DeeDee, a possible dwarf planet. That name—dwarf planet—means it is like Pluto: Massive enough to assume a spherical...

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.

There Is a Blind Spot in AI Research
From ACM Opinion

There Is a Blind Spot in AI Research

This week, the White House published its report on the future of artificial intelligence (AI)—a product of four workshops held between May and July 2016 in Seattle...

Welcome Your New Robot Overlords: Humans
From ACM Opinion

Welcome Your New Robot Overlords: Humans

I became a robot.

Russian Hacking Crisis Tests Obama's Nerve
From ACM Opinion

Russian Hacking Crisis Tests Obama's Nerve

President Barack Obama came under immediate pressure Friday night to punish Russia for hacking into US political institutions—with calls to rally European allies...

Would It Be Ethical to Implant False Memories in Therapy?
From ACM Opinion

Would It Be Ethical to Implant False Memories in Therapy?

Take a moment to remember an event that you experienced as a child.

An Ode to the Rosetta Spacecraft as It Flings Itself Into a Comet
From ACM Opinion

An Ode to the Rosetta Spacecraft as It Flings Itself Into a Comet

Today, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft will engage its thrusters for one final maneuver: a suicidal plunge toward the comet it has been orbiting...

Y2k 2.0: Is the ­.s. Government Set to 'give Away the Internet' Saturday?
From ACM Opinion

Y2k 2.0: Is the ­.s. Government Set to 'give Away the Internet' Saturday?

Remember the projected Y2K bug disaster? The world's computers would supposedly go haywire as the clock ticked to January 1, 2000, thus destroying the world and...

Why Data Is the New Coal
From ACM Opinion

Why Data Is the New Coal

"Is data the new oil?" asked proponents of big data back in 2012 in Forbes magazine. By 2016, and the rise of big data's turbo-powered cousin deep learning, westated Fortune...

Grading the Presidential Candidates on Science
From ACM Opinion

Grading the Presidential Candidates on Science

Two weeks ago, Scientific American asked for your help in grading the presidential candidates on their answers to 20 questions about various aspects of scientific...

The Internet Is No Place For Public Elections
From ACM Opinion

The Internet Is No Place For Public Elections

Despite what your local election officials may tell you, you can’t trust the Internet with your vote.

What If the Aliens We Are Looking For Are Ai?
From ACM Opinion

What If the Aliens We Are Looking For Are Ai?

For more than a century we have been broadcasting our presence to the cosmos.

Ted Cruz Is Wrong About How Free Speech Is Censored on the Internet
From ACM Opinion

Ted Cruz Is Wrong About How Free Speech Is Censored on the Internet

Sen. Ted Cruz wants to engineer a United States takeover of a key Internet organization, ICANN, in the name of protecting freedom of expression.

Cloud Calipers
From Communications of the ACM

Cloud Calipers

Naming the next generation and remembering that the cloud is just other people's computers.

For the Debaters: What Shall We Do About the Tech Careening Our Way?
From ACM Opinion

For the Debaters: What Shall We Do About the Tech Careening Our Way?

Here's a question I’m hoping comes up at Monday's presidential debate: Secretary Clinton and Mr. Trump, what would you do about self-driving trucks?

Are the Experts Worried About the Existential Risk of Artificial Intelligence?
From ACM Opinion

Are the Experts Worried About the Existential Risk of Artificial Intelligence?

If you believe everything you read, you are probably quite worried about the prospect of a superintelligent, killer AI.

The Cold War Is Over. The Cyber War Has Begun.
From ACM Opinion

The Cold War Is Over. The Cyber War Has Begun.

Contemplating Russian nuclear threats during the Cold War, the strategist Herman Kahn calibrated a macabre ladder of escalation, with 44 rungs ranging from "Ostensible...

Big Step For Quantum Teleportation Won't Bring ­S Any Closer to Star Trek. Here's Why
From ACM Opinion

Big Step For Quantum Teleportation Won't Bring ­S Any Closer to Star Trek. Here's Why

Two teams have set new distance records for quantum teleportation: using the weirdness of quantum mechanics to instantly transfer the condition or "state" of one...
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