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
Glenn Greenwald's Pulse-Pounding Tale of Breaking the Snowden Leaks
In June 2013, Edward Snowden was sitting in his room at the Mira hotel in Hong Kong, watching the world react to the first of his explosive leaks about the NSA's...
From ACM Opinion
The Peril of Knowledge Everywhere
Thanks to advances in technology, we may soon revisit a question raised four centuries ago: Are there things we should try not to know?
From ACM Opinion
A World Digital Library Is Coming True!
In the scramble to gain market share in cyberspace, something is getting lost: the public interest.
From ACM Opinion
The Not-So-Distant Future When We Can All pgrade Our Brains
In a decade, cognitive enhancement may have gone mainstream.
From ACM Opinion
Cassini Revisited
When its handlers finally steer it into a collision course with Saturn in 2017, the spacecraft Cassini will have been in space for two decades, 13 of those years...
From ACM Opinion
Here's How to Learn How Much Your Data Is Worth to Facebook and Google
The anti-virus software company AVG has created PrivacyFix, an app to help you get a handle on just how much you're worth to big-time data players Facebook and...
From ACM Opinion
Former Head of the Nsa and Commander of the S Cyber Command, General Keith Alexander
Recently retired director of the U.S. National Security Agency and commander of the U.S. Cyber Command General Keith Alexander was interviewed by Australian Financial...
From ACM Opinion
The Wizard of Minecraft
It's a wet monday morning in Stockholm, and the door to Markus Persson's office is closed.
From ACM Opinion
Getting Everyday Objects to Think
If the so-called Internet of Things ever becomes one of those proverbial next big things in technology, Thomas Lee, a card-carrying member of the cohort of big...
From ACM Opinion
The Move Toward Computing That Reads Your Mind
Like many people in this modern world, I struggle with the tension between the conveniences offered by the latest technology and the loss of privacy that comes...
From ACM Opinion
4 Ways the Political Elite Try (and Fail) to Avoid Leaving a Trail of Incriminating Messages
The most powerful people in the country are just not as good as teenagers when it comes to being discreet. Mostly that’s by design—there are freedom of information...
From ACM Opinion
Can an Algorithm Solve Twitter's Credibility Problem?
On October 29, 2012, when Hurricane Sandy made landfall, I was in my Brooklyn apartment, refreshing Twitter.
From ACM Opinion
The White House Big Data Report: The Good, The Bad, and The Missing
Last week, the White House released its report on big data and its privacy implications, the result of a 90-day study commissioned by President Obama during his...
From ACM Opinion
The Secret Messages Inside Chinese rls
An American friend living in Beijing once said she refused to communicate with anyone whose email address consisted of a string of numbers, such as 62718298454@163...
From ACM Opinion
Eugene Kaspersky: Major Cyberterrorist Attack Is Only Matter of Time
A major, global cyberterrorist attack has long been the stuff of fiction, the threat that a malevolent hacker could bring down businesses, sabotage power plants...
From ACM Opinion
'transcendence Looks at the Implications of Artificial Intelligence, but Are We Taking AI Seriously Enough?'
With the Hollywood blockbuster Transcendence playing in cinemas, with Johnny Depp and Morgan Freeman showcasing clashing visions for the future of humanity, it's...
From ACM Opinion
Transcending Artificial Intelligence
While it can be a blast going to see the latest Hollywood sci-fi thriller, watching it along with a leading expert in the science and technology fields relevant...
From ACM Opinion
Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook's Future, From Virtual Reality to Anonymity
No one ever accused Mark Zuckerberg of standing pat.
From ACM News