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 Communications of the ACM
Objects Never? Well, Hardly Ever!
Revisiting the Great Objects Debate.
From Communications of the ACM
Principles of the Law of Software Contracts
An overview of a new set of legal principles for software contracts developed by the American Law Institute.
From ACM Opinion
The First Church of Robotics
This constant stream of stories about artificial intelligence suggests that machines are becoming smart and autonomous, a new form of life, and that we should...
From ACM Opinion
The Itch of Curiosity
Curiosity is one of those personality traits that gets short scientific shrift. It strikes me as a really important mental habit—how many successful people are...
From Communications of the ACM
An Interview With Edsger W. Dijkstra
The computer science luminary, in one of his last interviews before his death in 2002, reflects on a programmer's life.
From Communications of the ACM
Rights For Autonomous Artificial Agents?
The growing role of artificial agents necessitates modifying legal frameworks to better address human interests.
From Communications of the ACM
Presenting Your Project
The what, the how, and the why of giving an effective presentation.
From ACM Opinion
Lithium: Why It Makes Such Great Batteries
One theme I ran into over and over while writing about the periodic table was the future of energy and the question of which element or elements will replace carbon...
From Communications of the ACM
Is Computer Science Truly Scientific?
Reflections on the (experimental) scientific method in computer science.
From ACM Opinion
Venter: The Implications of Our Synthetic Cell
We did not create life from scratch: we transformed existing life into new life. Nor did we design and build a new chromosome from scratch. Rather, using only digitised...
From Communications of the ACM
An Interview with Ed Feigenbaum
ACM Fellow and A.M. Turing Award recipient Edward A. Feigenbaum, a pioneer in the field of expert systems, reflects on his career.
From Communications of the ACM
Plotting Away
Dear KV, I've been working with some code that generates massive data sets, and . . . I'm finding that more and more often I...
From Communications of the ACM
The Resurgence of Parallelism
Parallel computation is making a comeback after a quarter century of neglect. Past research can be put to quick use today.
From Communications of the ACM
Cloud Computing and Electricity: Beyond the Utility Model
Assessing the strengths, weaknesses, and general applicability of the computing-as-utility business model.
From Communications of the ACM
Q&A: Systematic Thinking
Andrew S. Tanenbaum talks about MINIX, microkernels, and electronic voting systems.
From Communications of the ACM
The Data-Structure Canon
Data structures are part of the foundation of computer science. It pays to revisit them from time to time.
From Communications of the ACM
Cloud Computing and SaaS as New Computing Platforms
To become an industry platform, vendors must open their infrastructure technology to other product companies.
From Communications of the ACM
Be Careful What You Wish For
Reflections on the decline of mathematical tables.
From Communications of the ACM