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The ­ncanny Valley Nobody's Talking About: Eerie Robot Voices
From ACM Opinion

The ­ncanny Valley Nobody's Talking About: Eerie Robot Voices

Call it the Great Convergence of Creepiness. The first bit, the uncanny valley, we're all familiar with by now: If a humanoid robot looks super realistic, but not...

Author Richard K. Morgan Wants to Destroy Your Mars Fantasies
From ACM Opinion

Author Richard K. Morgan Wants to Destroy Your Mars Fantasies

Richard K. Morgan has spent most of the past decade working on his fantasy trilogy A Land Fit For Heroes.

Why the Search for Aliens Could ­nite ­s Here on Earth
From ACM Opinion

Why the Search for Aliens Could ­nite ­s Here on Earth

If aliens are trying to talk to us (or even if they are not), Jill Tarter will be the one to find them.

The Quantum Spy Author David Ignatius on the Future of High-Tech Espionage
From ACM Opinion

The Quantum Spy Author David Ignatius on the Future of High-Tech Espionage

The intersection of quantum computing and espionage may feel like a faraway future. But in his latest novel, David Ignatius, Washington's own John le Carré, tackles...

Algorithms Have Already Gone Rogue
From ACM Opinion

Algorithms Have Already Gone Rogue

For more than two decades, Tim O'Reilly has been the conscience of the tech industry.

What Is Ray Kurzweil ­p To at Google? Writing Your Emails
From ACM Opinion

What Is Ray Kurzweil ­p To at Google? Writing Your Emails

Ray Kurzweil has invented a few things in his time.

How Google Copes When Even It Can't Afford Enough Gear
From ACM Opinion

How Google Copes When Even It Can't Afford Enough Gear

Urs Hölzle has a big job.

Crispr Creator Jennifer Doudna on the Promises, and Pitfalls, of Easy Genetic Modification
From ACM Opinion

Crispr Creator Jennifer Doudna on the Promises, and Pitfalls, of Easy Genetic Modification

For $150, you can buy a Crispr kit online and use it to engineer heartier gut bacteria in your kitchen.

How Steve Wozniak Got Over His Fear of Robots Turning People Into Pets
From ACM Opinion

How Steve Wozniak Got Over His Fear of Robots Turning People Into Pets

Steve Wozniak is one half of Silicon Valley's most prototypical founder's myth.

The Former Secretary of Defense Outlines the Future of Warfare
From ACM Opinion

The Former Secretary of Defense Outlines the Future of Warfare

To an engineer in Silicon Valley, the Defense Department can look a little old, a little slow, and a little fat.

Inside Nat Geo's Incredible Documentary Mission to Mars
From ACM Opinion

Inside Nat Geo's Incredible Documentary Mission to Mars

A spaceship is preparing to land on Mars when the crew notices that one of the thrusters isn’t firing.

Obama's Concerned an AI Could Hack America's Nukes
From ACM Opinion

Obama's Concerned an AI Could Hack America's Nukes

During his eight years in office, President Barack Obama has seen hackers grow into a threat no president has faced before.

The President's Nsa Advisory Board Finally Gets a Tech Expert
From ACM Opinion

The President's Nsa Advisory Board Finally Gets a Tech Expert

It's taken more than a decade, but a critical oversight board tasked with advising the president on the privacy and civil liberties implications of the NSA's surveillance...

It's Been 20 Years Since This Man Declared Cyberspace Independence
From ACM Opinion

It's Been 20 Years Since This Man Declared Cyberspace Independence

When digital dystopians and critics of Internet libertarians need a rhetorical dart board, they often pull out a document written by John Perry Barlow, co-founder...

Huge MIT Media Lab Inventions That Transformed Our World
From ACM Opinion

Huge MIT Media Lab Inventions That Transformed Our World

For the last 30 years, the MIT Lab has been a breeding ground for technological progress that’s pushed the world into the future.

The Martian's Andy Weir Is All Buddy-Buddy with Nasa
From ACM Opinion

The Martian's Andy Weir Is All Buddy-Buddy with Nasa

When sci-fi author Andy Weir went to visit mission control at NASA's Johnson Space Center, the International Space Station was going through a crisis—an air leak...

Hands-On With Microsoft's ­nbelievable New Holographic Goggles
From ACM Opinion

Hands-On With Microsoft's ­nbelievable New Holographic Goggles

It's the end of October, when the days have already grown short in Redmond, Washington, and gray sheets of rain are just beginning to let up.

9 of the World's Leading Designers Talk About What Matters Now
From ACM Opinion

9 of the World's Leading Designers Talk About What Matters Now

Design is in flux.

Linux's Creator Wants Us All to Chill Out About the Leap Second
From ACM Opinion

Linux's Creator Wants Us All to Chill Out About the Leap Second

The leap second is the rare and obscure practice of occasionally adding a second to the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) system that most of us use to set our watches...

The Man Who Will Build Google's Elusive Quantum Computer
From ACM Opinion

The Man Who Will Build Google's Elusive Quantum Computer

John Martinis is one of the world's foremost experts on quantum computing, a growing field of science that aims to process information at super high speeds using...
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