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Little Green Men Might Not Be So 'green'
From ACM Opinion

Little Green Men Might Not Be So 'green'

Humans are affecting the Earth’s systems on a global scale. Industrial pollutants are accumulating in our atmosphere with the potential for long-term impact on...

The Data Centers of Tomorrow Will ­se the Same Tech Our Phones Do
From ACM Opinion

The Data Centers of Tomorrow Will ­se the Same Tech Our Phones Do

The mobile revolution has spread beyond the mini supercomputers in our hands all the way to the data center.

Where Tech Is Taking ­s: A Conversation With Intel's Genevieve Bell
From ACM Opinion

Where Tech Is Taking ­s: A Conversation With Intel's Genevieve Bell

Genevieve Bell grew up among Aboriginal people in Australia, taught anthropology at Stanford and for the past 16 years has worked for Intel.

Three Questions For J. Craig Venter
From ACM Opinion

Three Questions For J. Craig Venter

Genome scientist and entrepreneur J. Craig Venter is best known for being the first person to sequence his own genome, back in 2001.

Why Is Science Fiction So Hard to Define?
From ACM Opinion

Why Is Science Fiction So Hard to Define?

Time Out, the weekly listings magazine, recently ranked the 100 best sci-fi movies of all time.

When Robots Come For Our Jobs, Will We Be Ready to Outsmart Them?
From ACM Opinion

When Robots Come For Our Jobs, Will We Be Ready to Outsmart Them?

Non-human employees are filling positions in all sorts of workplaces, and they are proving themselves to be fast, accurate, and reliable—more so than their human...

From Communications of the ACM

Forked Over

Shortchanged by open source.

Bletchley Park's Rebirth and Why It Matters
From ACM Opinion

Bletchley Park's Rebirth and Why It Matters

Twenty five years ago, the historic World War II codebreaking center Bletchley Park faced demolition.

The Future of Robot Caregivers
From ACM Opinion

The Future of Robot Caregivers

Each time I make a house call, I stay much longer than I should.

Being a Better Online Reader
From ACM Opinion

Being a Better Online Reader

Soon after Maryanne Wolf published "Proust and the Squid," a history of the science and the development of the reading brain from antiquity to the twenty-first...

Three Questions For Robotics Inventor Cynthia Breazeal About Social Robots
From ACM Opinion

Three Questions For Robotics Inventor Cynthia Breazeal About Social Robots

As an academic, Cynthia Breazeal pioneered research into social interaction between humans and robots, developing Kismet, a robot that used facial expressions in...

The Moral Hazards and Legal Conundrums of Our Robot-Filled Future
From ACM Opinion

The Moral Hazards and Legal Conundrums of Our Robot-Filled Future

The robots are coming, and they're getting smarter.

Defending the Grand Vision of the Human Brain Project
From ACM Opinion

Defending the Grand Vision of the Human Brain Project

"A grass roots effort is under way to stop the project... 'Mediocre science, terrible science policy,' begins the spirited letter…"

How to Terraform the Moon
From ACM Opinion

How to Terraform the Moon

Space fans were startled—and perhaps a little skeptical—in May when the Russians announced that they intend to build a manned moon base.

Harnessing the Speed of Light
From ACM Opinion

Harnessing the Speed of Light

The fields of data communication, fabrication, and ultrasound imaging share a common challenge when it comes to improving speed and efficiency: light's diffraction...

The Trouble With Brain Science
From ACM Opinion

The Trouble With Brain Science

Are we ever going to figure out how the brain works?

How Not to Build a Brain
From ACM Opinion

How Not to Build a Brain

Building a brain sounds like a worthy goal, one that makes it seem as though the future is within reach.

Early-­niverse Explorer Looks For Answers
From ACM Opinion

Early-­niverse Explorer Looks For Answers

On March 17, a panel of four astrophysicists held a press conference at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., to announce that they...

Forget Turing, the Lovelace Test Has a Better Shot at Spotting AI
From ACM Opinion

Forget Turing, the Lovelace Test Has a Better Shot at Spotting AI

When a chatbot called Eugene Goostman passed Alan Turing's famous measure of machine intelligence in June by posing as a Ukrainian teenager with questionable language...

Will Computers Ever Replace Teachers?
From ACM Opinion

Will Computers Ever Replace Teachers?

The classroom looked like a call center.
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