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Best Books of 2016
From ACM Opinion

Best Books of 2016

Our editors' picks for the best books of 2016, and some they're eagerly anticipating.

Nasa's Overlooked Duty to Look Inward
From ACM Opinion

Nasa's Overlooked Duty to Look Inward

In 1942, not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the poet Archibald MacLeish wrote an essay called "The Image of Victory," in which he asked what winning the...

The Year Encryption Won
From ACM News

The Year Encryption Won

Between the revelations of mega-hacks of Yahoo and others, Russia's meddling in the US electoral system, and the recent spike in ransomware, it's easy to look at...

2017 Sneak Peek: What the New Year Holds For Science
From ACM Opinion

2017 Sneak Peek: What the New Year Holds For Science

If the United States pulls back on its climate commitments as president-elect Donald Trump has promised, China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases,...

Dear Mr. Trump: To 'cyber' Better, Try the Blockchain
From ACM Opinion

Dear Mr. Trump: To 'cyber' Better, Try the Blockchain

A massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack took several high-profile websites—Twitter, Amazon, the New York Times, even WIRED—offline in October.

Colossal Genius
From Communications of the ACM

Colossal Genius: Tutte, Flowers, and a Bad Imitation of Turing

Reflections on pioneering code-breaking efforts.

The Internet Is Broken. Starting from Scratch, Here's How I'd Fix It.
From ACM Opinion

The Internet Is Broken. Starting from Scratch, Here's How I'd Fix It.

My big idea is that we have to fix the Internet.

A World of Surveillance Doesn't Always Help to Catch a Thief
From ACM Opinion

A World of Surveillance Doesn't Always Help to Catch a Thief

Earlier this year, I had a beer in one of the more budget-conscious bars in the Mission district. My wallet stayed a little later than I did.

If Only AI Could Save ­s from Ourselves
From ACM Opinion

If Only AI Could Save ­s from Ourselves

Humans have broken the Internet.

If We Made Contact with Aliens, How Would Religions React?
From ACM Opinion

If We Made Contact with Aliens, How Would Religions React?

In 2014, Nasa awarded $1.1M to the Center for Theological Inquiry, an ecumenical research institute in New Jersey, to study “the societal implications of astrobiology”...

Where Will Nasa Go in the Age of Trump?
From ACM Opinion

Where Will Nasa Go in the Age of Trump?

Two weeks after a presidential election that could have vaulted him to the head of NASA, John Grunsfeld reached across his peanut curry at a small restaurant on...

Cybersecurity's Next Phase: cyber-Deterrence
From ACM Opinion

Cybersecurity's Next Phase: cyber-Deterrence

Cyberattackers pose many threats to a wide range of targets. Russia, for example, was accused of hacking Democratic Party computers throughout the year, interfering...

Three Touchy Questions For Tech Leaders to Ask Trump
From ACM Opinion

Three Touchy Questions For Tech Leaders to Ask Trump

Few in the technology sector besides Peter Thiel had much love for Donald Trump during the presidential campaign.

Trump Ignoring ­S Intelligence Creates Risks Beyond Russian Hacking
From ACM Opinion

Trump Ignoring ­S Intelligence Creates Risks Beyond Russian Hacking

Observers and alumni of America's intelligence community have already fretted over Donald Trump's impending control of the world's most powerful spy agencies.

The Cynical Gambit to Make 'fake News' Meaningless
From ACM Opinion

The Cynical Gambit to Make 'fake News' Meaningless

For a term that is suddenly everywhere, "fake news" is fairly slippery.

Mr. Robot Killed the Hollywood Hacker
From ACM Opinion

Mr. Robot Killed the Hollywood Hacker

For decades Hollywood has treated computers as magic boxes from which endless plot points could be conjured, in denial of all common sense.

Google, Democracy and the Truth About Internet Search
From ACM News

Google, Democracy and the Truth About Internet Search

Here's what you don’t want to do late on a Sunday night. You do not want to type seven letters into Google. That's all I did.

Sue Over Fake News? Not So Fast
From ACM Opinion

Sue Over Fake News? Not So Fast

The latest controversy involving so-called fake news has left many wondering why websites that publish patently false statements on the Internet have not been prosecuted...

Earth, the Final Frontier
From ACM Opinion

Earth, the Final Frontier

On April 1, 1960, the newly established National Aeronautics and Space Administration heaved a 270-pound box of electronics into Earth orbit.

Robots Won't Kill the Workforce. They'll Save the Global Economy.
From ACM Opinion

Robots Won't Kill the Workforce. They'll Save the Global Economy.

The United Nations forecasts that the global population will rise from 7.3 billion to nearly 10 billion by 2050, a big number that often prompts warnings about...
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