Communications of the ACM
Innovation Is Overrated: A Provocation
Digital innovation is not working in the interest of the whole of society. It is time to radically rethink its purpose without…
From ACM Opinion
The Real Reason America Controls Its Nukes with Ancient Floppy Disks
America's nuclear arsenal depends on a surprising relic of the 1970s that few of us may recall: the humble floppy disk.
From ACM Opinion
Nasa and the Author of 'the Martian' Tell s Exactly How We'll Get to Mars
In "The Martian," Matt Damon plays a NASA astronaut who's been stranded on Mars and has to figure out how to survive until the space agency can devise a daring...
From ACM Opinion
This Top Scientist Offers a Solution For the Havoc Driverless Cars May Wreck on Workers
Proponents of autonomous vehicles are in a sticky situation.
From ACM Opinion
A Court Is About to Make One of the Most Important Decisions in the History of the Internet
If you thought the battle over net neutrality ended when the Federal Communications Commission slapped a series of unprecedented rules on Internet providers last...
From ACM Opinion
The Creepy, Inescapable Advertisements That Could Define Virtual Reality
When cookie giant Oreo wanted to promote its latest flavors, its marketing heads decided to spice up its traditional TV ads with something not just new, but otherworldly...
From ACM Opinion
This One Thing Could Hurt Apple's Case in Washington
Apple's fight with the FBI is widening beyond the courts.
From ACM Opinion
Why Robots and Smart Thermostats Keep America's Spy Chief p at Night
Some people are already used to having their personal information exposed in massive data breaches.
From ACM Opinion
If Killer Robots Arrive, the Terminator Will Be the Least of Our Problems
Autonomous weapons experts sounded the alarm last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, cautioning that unless governments act to limit these...
From ACM Opinion
The Case For Looking to the States, Not the Federal Government, to Protect Your Privacy
A year ago, President Obama stood behind a podium at the Federal Trade Commission and called for legislation that would set a single national standard for when...
From ACM Opinion
The 'pluto Killer' Who Thinks He's Found the True Ninth Planet
Mike Brown is an astronomer at Caltech who's been instrumental in the discovery of more than 30 dwarf planets and asteroids at the far reaches of our solar system...
From ACM Opinion
Why It's So Hard For Washington to Draft Tech Companies Against the Islamic State
Here's the basic problem the government faces when it comes to stopping the Islamic State's Internet propaganda: It needs Silicon Valley's help. But some tech companies—even...
From ACM Opinion
Driverless Cars Are Colliding with the Creepy Trolley Problem
Philosophers have been gnawing on the infamous Trolley Problem for decades, and it’s always been a purely intellectual exercise with no "right" answer.
From ACM Opinion
5 Amazing and Alarming Things That May Be Done with Your Dna
"You're a male, you're 34-years-old and your 5-foot-10 1/2 inches tall." That's a prediction that Craig Venter, long a pioneer on the frontier of genomics, offered...
From ACM Opinion
Apple Is Learning an Expensive Lesson About niversities
You may have heard that Apple's on the hook for $862 million in potential penalties after a jury ruled that it infringed on a patent owned by the University of...
From ACM Opinion
How Tetris Explains the Promise of the ltimate Algorithm
Pedro Domingos is a serious guy with big ambitions.
From ACM Opinion
Why the Ftc Is Showing p at Hackers' Biggest Conferences
The Federal Trade Commission, the de facto federal watchdog for consumers' privacy and data security, knows it needs help.
From ACM Opinion
The Very Best Ideas For Preventing Artificial Intelligence from Wrecking the Planet
The Boston-based Future of Life Institute, backed by a $10 million donation from Elon Musk, recently announced its list of 37 winners of research grants in the....
From ACM Opinion
6 Reasons Why We're nderhyping the Internet of Things
Just when you thought the Internet of Things couldn't possibly live up to its hype, along comes a blockbuster, 142-page report from McKinsey Global Institute ("The...
From ACM Opinion
The Latest Oculus Headset Made Me Want to Throw p. In a Good Way.
Virtual reality and its viability as a consumer technology is a huge theme at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, a Los Angeles convention for the video...
From ACM Opinion