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
If There Is Water on Mars, Who Gets to se It?
Humans settle around water, especially in the desert.
From ACM Opinion
The Master Algorithm: A World Remade By Machines that Learn
Pedro Domingos's new book is a compelling but rather unquestioning insider view of the search for the ultimate in machine learning.
From ACM Opinion
The Room Where the Internet Was Born
Starting a cross-country drive to New York in Los Angeles is pretty inconvenient, unless your cross-country drive is also a vision quest to see the Internet.
From ACM Opinion
The Light-Beam Rider
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the General Theory of Relativity, the most beautiful theory in the history of science, and in its honor we should take...
From ACM Opinion
The Physical Origin of niversal Computing
Imagine you're shopping for a new car, and the salesperson says, "Did you know, this car doesn't just drive on the road."
From ACM Opinion
David Divincenzo on His Tenure at IBM and the Future of Quantum Computing
Theoretical physicist David DiVincenzo is widely viewed as one of the pioneers of quantum computing. He authored a 1996 paper (PDF) outlining five criteria he predicted...
From ACM Opinion
Apple's Deep Learning Curve
In the world of artificial intelligence, one of the year's biggest coming-out parties is the Neural Information Processing Systems conference.
From ACM Opinion
A Radical Proposal: Replace Hard Disks with Dram
When it comes to computer storage, the magnetic disk has been top dog for almost half a century.
From ACM News
Cassini Seeks Insights to Life in Plumes of Enceladus, Saturn’s Icy Moon
Where there is water, is there life?
From ACM Opinion
Why Fully Autonomous Robot Cars Hail from the 20th Century
A vision of fully autonomous, self-driving cars allowing human owners to nap or read in the car seems to come from the future.
From ACM Opinion
How the Internet Has Changed Bullying
This summer, American Psychologist, the official journal of the American Psychological Association, released a special issue on the topic of bullying and victimization...
From ACM Opinion
These 5 Facts Explain the Rise of the Drone
The October 15 release of the so-called Drone Papers, leaked reports that appear to document the U.S. use of drone aircraft for military purposes, has given the...
From ACM Opinion
The Myth of Basic Science
Innovation is a mysteriously difficult thing to dictate. Technology seems to change by a sort of inexorable, evolutionary progress, which we probably cannot stop—or...
From ACM Opinion
We Don't Need Humans on Mars
The two mobile robots Spirit and Opportunity were launched from Earth in 2003 and arrived on opposite sides of Mars in 2004. A suite of cameras, instruments, and...
From Communications of the ACM
When Technologies Manipulate Our Emotions
Implications of the Facebook emotions study.
From Communications of the ACM
An Interview with Fred Brooks
ACM Fellow and A.M. Turing Award recipient Fred Brooks reflects on his career.
From Communications of the ACM
Programming in K-12 Science Classrooms
Introducing students to visual programming as a pathway to text-based programming.
From Communications of the ACM
Electronic Health Records and Patient Safety
Examining the effects of electronic health records on the safety of patients in medical facilities.
From Communications of the ACM