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
The Mathematical Equation that Caused the Banks to Crash
It was the holy grail of investors. The Black-Scholes equation, brainchild of economists Fischer Black and Myron Scholes, provided a rational way to price a financial...
From ACM Opinion
Why William Gibson Distrusts Aging Futurists' Nostalgia
Few things seem more pathetic than a science fiction writer who pines for the "good old days."
From ACM Opinion
The Science Fiction Effect
It's alive! Neurophysiology. Huddled around a warm fireplace one cold summer's night in 1816, a small group of friends decided to hold a competition to see who...
From ACM Opinion
No Objections to Nano?
Some forms of biotechnology have become notoriously controversial. Genetic modification of crops, for example, altered the food supply in ways some consumers...
From ACM Opinion
Designing Windows 8, or How to Redesign a Religion
There are lot of hard jobs at Microsoft. But Sam Moreau just might have the hardest of all. Or at least the most harrowing. Over the past five years, he's taken...
From ACM Opinion
'a Clockwork Orange' Strikes 40
The New York Times recently ran an opinion piece about the concept of a morality pill, a theoretical-but-apparently-not-implausible panacea for humankind's ethical...
From ACM Opinion
Rethinking the Soul As the 'net Becomes More Lifelike
Does the Internet have a soul?
From ACM Opinion
Time For Robots to Get Real
From robotic slug-killers to dancing humanoids, there's a lot of media buzz around robots.
From ACM News
Sebastian Thrun Resigns from Stanford to Launch dacity
Professor Sebastian Thrun has given up his Stanford position to start Udacity—an online educational venture. Udacity's first two free courses are Building a Search...
From Communications of the ACM
Wanton Acts of Debuggery
Keep your debug messages clear, useful, and not annoying.
From ACM Opinion
It's Time to Start 3d Scanning the World
When Microsoft was developing its Kinect 3D sensor, a critical task was to calibrate its algorithms to rapidly and accurately recognize parts of the human body,...
From ACM Opinion
Looking Backward to Put New Technologies in Focus
More than most of us, the science historian George Dyson spends his days thinking about technologies, old and very new.
From ACM Opinion
Building the Team That Built Watson
The assignment was one of the biggest challenges in the field of artificial intelligence: build a computer smart enough to beat grand champions at the game of...
From Communications of the ACM
An Interview with Stephen A. Cook
Stephen A. Cook, winner of the 1982 A.M. Turing Award, reflects on his career.
From Communications of the ACM
The Difference Engine
Observations on cognitive diversity and team performance.
From ACM Opinion
The Future of Moral Machines
A robot walks into a bar and says, "I’ll have a screwdriver." A bad joke, indeed. But even less funny if the robot says "Give me what’s in your cash register."...
From ACM Opinion
The Benefits of Video Games
In addition to understanding the many real concerns that today's parents have with video games, it's also worth considering the benefits and positive aspects...
From ACM Opinion
Marc Andreessen: Predictions For 2012 (and Beyond)
Marc Andreessen's view of the world boils down to software.
From ACM Opinion
The Top 10 Tech Trends For 2012
A year is virtually a lifetime in the digital era. And yet we can at least make a guess at what will happen in the early part of next year simply by looking at...
From ACM Opinion