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
What's in a Boarding Pass Barcode? A Lot
The next time you're thinking of throwing away a used boarding pass with a barcode on it, consider tossing the boarding pass into a document shredder instead.
From ACM Opinion
How to Make a Rubber Ducky Comet: Smash Two Comets Together! Carefully.
It was a bit of a surprise when the Rosetta probe, after a decade of travel around the Sun, approached the comet and sent the first decently resolved pictures of...
From ACM Opinion
Apple Ceo Tim Cook: 'privacy Is a Fundamental Human Right'
Apple has long touted the power and design of its devices, but recently the world's most valuable company has been emphasizing another feature: privacy.
From ACM Opinion
Apple's 3d Touch Is the Start of a New Interface Revolution
If you want to understand the potential of 3D Touch, the new of method of tapping and pressing on the screens of the latest iPhones, forget about the marketing...
From ACM Opinion
Two Paths Toward Our Robot Future
In 1970, Life magazine published an article about a Stanford University research project that had resulted in the construction of what it called the first-ever...
From ACM Opinion
Fighting Isis Online
The two men pecked out messages on opposite sides of the country.
From ACM Opinion
'martian' Author Andy Weir Figured Out Faster-Than-Light Travel For His New Novel
Readers and astrophysicists alike praised Andy Weir's The Martian for a fact-first approach to the sci-fi disaster model.
From ACM Opinion
How Chicago Got Smart About Sensors
I've been excited about the Array of Things—a network of beautifully designed sensors poised to capture and make public real-time, non-personal data about the livability...
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
Modelling: Build Imprecise Supercomputers
Today's supercomputers lack the power to model accurately many aspects of the real world, from the impact of cloud systems on Earth's climate to the processing...
From ACM Opinion
Searching For Life in Martian Water Will Be Very, Very Tricky
NASA scientists announced today the best evidence yet that Mars, once thought dry, sterile and dead, may yet have life in it: Liquid water still flows on at least...
From ACM Opinion
Openbci: Control An Air Shark With Your Mind
Le's be clear: This is a parlor trick, not neuroscience. Nonetheless, with the help of some friends, I was able to make a toy shark fly through the air using brain...
From ACM Opinion
Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.
College students tell me they know how to look someone in the eye and type on their phones at the same time, their split attention undetected.
From Communications of the ACM
Rise of Concerns About AI: Reflections and Directions
Research, leadership, and communication about AI futures.
From Communications of the ACM
In Defense of IBM
The ability to adjust to various technical and business disruptions has been essential to IBM's success during the past century.
From Communications of the ACM
Keys Under Doormats
Mandating insecurity by requiring government access to all data and communications.
From ACM Opinion