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What's Behind China's Space Programme Expansion
From ACM Opinion

What's Behind China's Space Programme Expansion

China is a relative late-bloomer when it comes to the world of space exploration. But just 15 years after it first sent an astronaut into orbit, China has become...

Tor Is Easier Than Ever. Time to Give It a Try
From ACM Opinion

Tor Is Easier Than Ever. Time to Give It a Try

You probably know about the digital anonymity service Tor, but for whatever reason you may not actually use it.

Is Quantum Computing a Cybersecurity Threat?
From ACM Opinion

Is Quantum Computing a Cybersecurity Threat?

Cybersecurity researchers and analysts are rightly worried that a new type of computer, based on quantum physics rather than more standard electronics, could ...

7 Arguments Against the Autonomous-Vehicle ­Utopia
From ACM Opinion

7 Arguments Against the Autonomous-Vehicle ­Utopia

Self-driving cars are coming. Tech giants such as Uber and Alphabet have bet on it, as have old-school car manufacturers such as Ford and General Motors.

How Russia ­sed the Internet to Perfect Its Dark Arts
From ACM Opinion

How Russia ­sed the Internet to Perfect Its Dark Arts

Imagine American politics for a moment as a laboratory experiment. A foreign adversary (let's call it "Russia") begins to play with the subjects, using carrots...

Don't Fear the Robot Overlords; Embrace Them as Coworkers
From ACM Opinion

Don't Fear the Robot Overlords; Embrace Them as Coworkers

In a chilly warehouse just outside of Boston, the brute toils away. It's 600 pounds of orange and black metal and whirring motors, a massive robotic arm that picks...

The Tech That Was Fixed in 2018 and the Tech That Still Needs Fixing
From ACM Opinion

The Tech That Was Fixed in 2018 and the Tech That Still Needs Fixing

Personal technology was so awful this year that nobody would think you were paranoid if you dug a hole and buried your computer, phone and smart speaker under six...

How China Got a Head Start in Fintech, and Why the West Won't Catch ­p
From ACM Opinion

How China Got a Head Start in Fintech, and Why the West Won't Catch ­p

In 2013 I moved from Paris to Beijing to study China's financial system. I stayed for two years and became fluent enough to translate economics books from Mandarin...

Google Isn't the Company that We Should Have Handed the Web Over To
From ACM Opinion

Google Isn't the Company that We Should Have Handed the Web Over To

With Microsoft's decision to end development of its own Web rendering engine and switch to Chromium, control over the Web has functionally been ceded to Google....

CRISPR
From Communications of the ACM

CRISPR: An Emerging Platform for Gene Editing

Considering a potential platform candidate in the evolving realm of gene-editing technologies research.

Illegal Pricing Algorithms
From Communications of the ACM

Illegal Pricing Algorithms

Examining the potential legal consequences of using pricing algorithms.

The ­S Needs to Engage China on Tech, Or Risk Isolating Itself
From ACM Opinion

The ­S Needs to Engage China on Tech, Or Risk Isolating Itself

The contrast could hardly be more striking. In October, Vice President Mike Pence delivered a blistering speech accusing China of stealing prized US technology...

Classical and Quantum Computers Are Vying for Superiority
From ACM Opinion

Classical and Quantum Computers Are Vying for Superiority

Will 2019 be the year when quantum computers show they have the right stuff? Google says so; one of the company's labs, in Santa Barbara, California, has promised...

Time Travel Is Possible, but Only If You Have an Object with Infinite Mass
From ACM Opinion

Time Travel Is Possible, but Only If You Have an Object with Infinite Mass

The concept of time travel has always captured the imagination of physicists and laypersons alike. But is it really possible? Of course it is.

The Robots Have Descended on Trump Country
From ACM Opinion

The Robots Have Descended on Trump Country

The growing use of work robots and the deployment of artificial intelligence have been most disruptive in just those areas of the country that provided President...

What the California Wildfires Can Teach ­s About Data Sharing
From ACM Opinion

What the California Wildfires Can Teach ­s About Data Sharing

When a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the eastern coast of Japan on March 11, 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant failed, leaking radioactive material...

Can the ­.S. Stop China From Controlling the Next Internet Age?
From ACM Opinion

Can the ­.S. Stop China From Controlling the Next Internet Age?

Imagine, if you will (and you should), a big American tech executive being detained over unspecified charges while on a trip to Beijing.

Huawei Reveals the Real Trade War With China
From ACM Opinion

Huawei Reveals the Real Trade War With China

If you only scan the headlines, you could be forgiven for thinking that the U.S.-China trade war is mainly about tariffs.

Is the ­.S. Lagging in the Quest for Quantum Computing?
From ACM Opinion

Is the ­.S. Lagging in the Quest for Quantum Computing?

A quantum computer capable of breaking the strongest codes protecting online communications and computer data is highly unlikely to appear within the next decade...

The End of Privacy Began in the 1960s
From ACM Opinion

The End of Privacy Began in the 1960s

In the fall of 1965, President Lyndon Johnson's administration announced a plan to consolidate hundreds of federal databases into one centralized National Data...
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