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
Don't nderestimate the Singularity
Although Paul Allen paraphrases my 2005 book, The Singularity Is Near, in the title of his essay (cowritten with his colleague Mark Greaves), it appears that he...
From ACM Opinion
Technology and the Innovation Economy
By adopting policies such as a permanent R&D tax credit, more effective university knowledge commercialization, improving STEM worker training, and regional economic...
From ACM Opinion
The Scary Prospect of Global Drone Warfare
Drone technology is spreading rapidly. As many as 50 countries are developing or purchasing these systems, including China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and Iran. Even...
From ACM Opinion
When Technology Disrupts Enforcement of Judicial Decisions
The relationship between law and technology has been described accurately as a cat and mouse game. Technology readily fills the role of mouse, always outpacing...
From ACM Opinion
Ballmer: Android sers Need To Be 'computer Scientists'
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, said that people need to be 'computer scientists' to be able to use Android smartphones...
From ACM Opinion
The Cyber Arms Race Has Begun
The Stuxnet virus was the starting gun for an arms race in cyberspace. Not only do all major powers feel compelled to develop threatening malware; many smaller...
From ACM Opinion
The Importance of Word Choice: Terms with Multiple Meanings For Scientists and the Public
If you haven't seen the excellent post on Mountain Beltway—Words matter—you should head over there and take a look. The post brought up some interesting ideas about...
From ACM Opinion
Dennis Ritchie: The Other Man Inside Your Iphone
The groundbreaking work he did with Ken Thompson led to the operating system behind everything from set-top boxes to the iPhone, but who sings the praises of...
From ACM Opinion
Steve Jobs and the ser Psyche
In a 1989 interview, Steve Jobs of NeXT Computer impressed Communications Editor Peter J. Denning as viewing the future as infinitely malleable, as something he...
From ACM Opinion
With Siri, Apple Could Eventually Build A Real AI
As iPhone 4S's flood into the hands of the public, users are coming face-to-face with something they weren't quite expecting: Apple's new voice interface, Siri...
From ACM Opinion
Making Robots with Open Source: An Interview with Steve Cousins, Ceo Willow Garage
Steve Cousins, President and CEO of Willow Garage, creators of the PR2 robot and the TurtleBot—both based on the open source ROS (Robot Operating System) platform—discusses...
From ACM Opinion
Making Robots with Open Source: An Interview with Steve Cousins, Ceo Willow Garage
Steve Cousins, President and CEO of Willow Garage, creators of the PR2 robot and the TurtleBot—both based on the open source ROS (Robot Operating System) platform—discusses...
From ACM Opinion
Apple's Siri Is as Revolutionary as the Mac
The initial reaction to the iPhone 4S was cooler than Apple might have hoped. Expectations had been hyped to such a point that people were looking for a leap...
From ACM Opinion
Dennis Ritchie: The Shoulders Steve Jobs Stood On
The tributes to Dennis Ritchie won’t match the river of praise that spilled out over the web after the death of Steve Jobs. But they should.
From ACM Opinion
The Singularity Isn't Near
Futurists like Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil have argued that the world is rapidly approaching a tipping point, where the accelerating pace of smarter and smarter...
From ACM Opinion
Do Volunteer Programmers Produce Better Code?
Volunteer programmers do better if they are in it for the long haul, says blogger Robert Pogson. "It's human nature to do better work when you are doing something...
From ACM Opinion
Cold-Calling Dennis Ritchie
When I was a grad student at the University of Wisconsin in 1978, I called Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs to tell him about the work I was doing with the Unix line...
From ACM Opinion
Ada Lovelace and Brazil's Female It Pros
Computer science higher education classes today are heavily skewed towards men. Researcher Jamie Swim's Master's thesis at the University of Texas was focused...
From ACM Opinion
.s. v. Jones: Where Privacy, Technology and the Constitution Collide
What is at stake in United States v. Jones is nothing less than the continued vitality of the Fourth Amendment in the modern technological age.
From ACM Opinion