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
How to Get to Mars ... And Maybe Even Live There
There's something about the Red Planet—so close yet so far, inhospitable yet perhaps not totally uninhabitable—that keeps us dreaming about getting there one day...
From ACM Opinion
We're on the Brink of a Revolution in Crazy-Smart Digital Assistants
Here's a quick story you’ve probably heard before, followed by one you probably haven't.
From ACM Opinion
You Can't nderstand Security Without These Classic Works
There are seminal books, movies, articles, and more that you've been meaning to get to but just haven't made the time for.
From ACM Opinion
Who Won Science Fiction's Hugo Awards, and Why It Matters
Since 1953, to be nominated for a Hugo Award, among the highest honors in science fiction and fantasy writing, has been a dream come true for authors who love time...
From ACM Opinion
The Amazingly Accurate Futurism of 2001: A Space Odyssey
The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s "2001: A Space Odyssey" documents in nearly scientific detail exactly that: the story of how the iconic science-fiction film came...
From ACM Opinion
Let's School the Presidential Hopefuls on Cybersecurity
In the build up to the 2016 U.S. election, both Democratic and Republican presidential hopefuls are talking about cybersecurity—and specifically state-sponsored...
From ACM Opinion
How Fiction Can Reveal the Horrors of Future Wars
The fact that he couldn't feel the drill going into the back of his skull made the noise all the more terrifying.
From ACM Opinion
Why I'm Addicted to Browsing Sepia Photos of Old-School Nyc
It's not a game or social media site, but OldNYC.org is as addictive as Angry Birds and as time consuming as Facebook.
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...
From ACM Opinion
Cli-Fi—That's Climate Fiction—Is the New Sci-Fi
Extreme weather events, changes in precipitation levels, species migration and extinction—climate change promises so many fun things. But why wait?
From ACM News
Leap Motion's Augmented-Reality Computing Looks Stupid Cool
We have a habit of filling new technologies with old ideas.
From ACM Opinion
Calculating Pluto's Mass With Snapshots From New Horizons
As the New Horizons spacecraft is approaching Pluto, it's getting some great shots.
From ACM Opinion
We Should Drop the Leap Second Before It Causes Real Damage
The latest leap second couldn’t have come at a worse time.
From ACM Opinion
Humans Are Tech's Next Big Thing—and That Could Be Risky
Internet companies make billions of dollars by capturing one of the world's most precious commodities: your attention.
From ACM Opinion
Why the Opm Breach Is Such a Security and Privacy Debacle
If it's not already a maxim, it should be: Every big hack discovered will eventually prove to be more serious than first believed.
From ACM Opinion
Stop Laughing at Those Clumsy Humanoid Robots
The humanoid robot, built like a linebacker with an oversized head, tiptoes on two feet through the dirt.
From ACM Opinion
I Made an ntraceable 'ghost Gun' in My Office—and It Was Easy
This is my ghost gun. To quote the rifleman's creed, there are many like it, but this one is mine.
From ACM Opinion
Looking For Creativity in Brains Will Take More Creativity
About a decade and a half ago, the neuroscience world got super-stoked about a sexy new way to look at living brains: functional magnetic resonance imaging.
From ACM Opinion
5 Ways We Must Regulate Drones at the .s. Border
Border patrol agents have Predator drones at their disposal, and using them has the potential to become a serious breach of privacy — but it also could be a terrific...
From ACM News