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
A Force For Face-to-Face Communication
Clifford I. Nass, a professor of communication at Stanford who died on Saturday, regaled me several times over the years about his method for torturing students...
From ACM Opinion
Google nveils Tools to Access Web From Repressive Countries
Google Ideas, the New York City–based "think/do tank" run by the Internet search giant, is launching several new technologies designed to highlight hacker attacks...
From ACM Opinion
The Information-Gathering Paradox
Consumer trust is a vital currency for every big Internet company, which helps to explain why the giants of Silicon Valley have gone to great lengths in recent...
From ACM Opinion
Dina Katabi
Syrian-born Dina Katabi is a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was awarded a MacArthur last...
From ACM Opinion
N.s.a. Director Gives Firm and Broad Defense of Surveillance Efforts
The director of the National Security Agency, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, said in an interview that to prevent terrorist attacks he saw no effective alternative to...
From ACM Opinion
The Argument For Making the Misuse of Your Personal Data a Felony
Craig Mundie is Microsoft's senior advisor to the CEO, spending his time on big-picture stuff such as (according to his bio) "key strategic projects within the...
From ACM Opinion
The Fatal Mistake That Doomed Blackberry
Beleaguered gadgetmaker BlackBerry said on Monday that it's signed a tentative agreement to be purchased by a group led by Canadian holding company Fairfax Financial...
From ACM Opinion
Does Digital Age Overcomplicate Design?
There is a scene in the television series "Boss" in which the mayor of Chicago, played by Kelsey Grammer, is discovered by his wife washing bed sheets by hand at...
From ACM Opinion
How Robots Can Trick You Into Loving Them
I like to think of my Roomba as cute and industrious.
From ACM Opinion
Who Will Prosper in the New World
Self-driving vehicles threaten to send truck drivers to the unemployment office.
From ACM Opinion
Visit to the World's Fair of 2014
The New York World's Fair of 1964 is dedicated to "Peace Through Understanding."
From ACM Opinion
On the Symmetry Between Microsoft and Apple
I am not a tech industry maven, so I am busy coming up to speed on the implications of the Ballmer resignation.
From ACM News
In Markets' Tuned-p Machinery, Stubborn Ghosts Remain
A generation ago, when the stock market crashed on Oct. 19, 1987, the Nasdaq stock market appeared to have done much better than the New York Stock Exchange.
From ACM Opinion
Welcome to the Age of Denial
In 1982, polls showed that 44 percent of Americans believed God had created human beings in their present form. Thirty years later, the fraction of the population...
From ACM Opinion
We Need a Moratorium on 'Brain-Like' Tech Stories
My "aha" moment arrived two decades ago while I was an undergrad student (and dilettante "futurist," though I didn’t know the word then), sitting in the Great Hall...
From ACM Opinion
Google's Science Fellows Challenge the Company's Fund-Raising For Senator Inhofe
Ten years ago this week, Senator James M. Inhofe, the Republican from Oklahoma, used a two-hour floor speech to launch his campaign on the credibility of climate...
From ACM Opinion
A Day in the Life of My Iphone
Each morning at 7 a.m., I am awakened by the sound of a spaceship next to my bed.
From ACM Opinion
I'm Still Waiting For My Phone to Become My Wallet
During the sweltering heat wave earlier this month, it seemed too hot to wear much, carry much or do much of anything at all.
From ACM Opinion