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
Teach Foundational Language Principles
Industry is ready and waiting for more graduates educated in the principles of programming languages.
From Communications of the ACM
Oracle v. Google: A High-Stakes Legal Fight For the Software Industry
Copyrighting APIs threatens significant harm to both consumers and the software industry.
From Communications of the ACM
What Are We Doing When We Teach Computing in Schools?
Research on the cognitive, educational, and policy dimensions of teaching computing is critical to achieving "computer literacy."
From Communications of the ACM
Life of IP
Seeking to balance intellectual property protection with incentives for investment in innovation.
From ACM Opinion
New Laws For New Threats Like Drones and Bioterrorism
You walk into your shower and see a spider.
From ACM Opinion
3 Questions on Killer Robots
Delegates to the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons are meeting this week in Geneva to discuss fully autonomous weapons—machines that could...
From ACM Opinion
The Inner Lives of Robots: An Interview with Filmmaker Alex Garland
Like self-replicating machines, robot movies are taking over Hollywood.
From ACM Opinion
Snowden's 'sexy Margaret Thatcher' Password Isn't So Secure
Edward Snowden appears to have a thing for the late British conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher. And his obsession may even be clouding his famously paranoid...
From ACM Opinion
Meet the Bots
The day that science fiction writers have feared for so long has finally come—the machines have risen up.
From ACM Opinion
Why Mlb Fans Should Lament the Failure of Google Glass
The consumer tech world received a jolt in January when the Wall Street Journal reported that Google executives were freezing all sales of its futuristically goofy...
From ACM Opinion
Sight nseen (the Hows and Whys of Invisibility)
It is possible, according to many sources, to become invisible, but you must be patient, methodical, and willing to eat almost anything.
From ACM Opinion
Hbo's John Oliver Hits Snowden Hard on Nsa Leaks
Edward Snowden and an unlikely interviewer squared-off on HBO over the leaks that exposed the National Security Agency's extensive surveillance programs.
From ACM Opinion
Toolkits For the Mind
When the Japanese computer scientist Yukihiro Matsumoto decided to create Ruby, a programming language that has helped build Twitter, Hulu, and much of the modern...
From ACM Opinion
Germanwings Flight 9525, Technology, and the Question of Trust
Shortly before the dreadful crash of Germanwings Flight 9525, I happened to be reading part of "The Second Machine Age," a book by two academics at M.I.T., Erik...
From ACM Opinion
First White House Data Chief Discusses His Top Priorities
Data science is not entirely new to Washington, D.C.—nor is DJ Patil, who was recently named as the U.S.'s first chief data scientist.
From ACM Opinion
David and Goliath: What Do We Do About Surveillance?
"Dear subscriber, you have been registered as a participant in a mass disturbance."
From ACM Opinion
Nsa Doesn't Need to Spy on Your Calls to Learn Your Secrets
Governments and corporations gather, store, and analyze the tremendous amount of data we chuff out as we move through our digitized lives.
From Communications of the ACM
Who Builds a House Without Drawing Blueprints?
Finding a better solution by thinking about the problem and its solution, rather than just thinking about the code.
From Communications of the ACM