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
Obama's Science Legacy: Betting Big on Biomedical Science
When president-elect Barack Obama chose physicist John Holdren as his top science adviser in December 2008, some biomedical researchers worried that the pick signalled...
From ACM Opinion
Space, Climate Change, and the Real Meaning of Theory
I used to be an astronaut, a spacewalker on the International Space Station.
From ACM Opinion
Mind-Controlled Robo-Skeleton Enables Paraplegics to Regain Some Motion
Patients paralyzed by a spinal cord injury can face a grim and grueling recovery process—one in which regaining function is far from a sure thing. But a new study...
From ACM Opinion
How to Read Between the Lines of Tim Cook's Epic Interview
To celebrate five years as CEO of Apple, Tim Cook has given a very long, exclusive interview to the Washington Post about his experiences so far. But what he didn’t...
From ACM Opinion
Tim Cook: Running Apple 'is Sort of a Lonely Job'
On a sleek white coffee table in Apple CEO Tim Cook's fourth-floor office in late July, beneath framed posters of Robert F. Kennedy, the Rev. Martin Luther King...
From ACM Opinion
What Virtual Reality Is Good For
After years as a punchline, virtual reality is enjoying a renaissance. Venture capitalists plowed $1.2 billion into virtual-reality and augmented-reality startups...
From ACM Opinion
Marconi Forged Today's Interconnected World of Communication
At Guglielmo Marconi's grand state funeral in Rome in 1937—orchestrated with military-style pomp by the black-shirted Benito Mussolini—the largest wreath on the...
From ACM Opinion
Hydrogen Molecule Falls to Quantum Computer
We are at the beginning of a revolution. I've been going on about quantum computing for as long as I've been writing, but it has always been in the future tense...
From ACM Opinion
Why Save a Computer Virus?
On average, 82,000 new malware threats are created each day.
From ACM Opinion
After Fatality, Autonomous Car Development May Speed p
The world has witnessed enormous advances in autonomous passenger vehicle technologies over the last dozen years.
From ACM Opinion
Remembering a Thinker Who Thought About Thinking
The field of educational technology is mourning a visionary whose work was considered 50 years ahead of its time.
From ACM Opinion
Google's Driverless-Car Czar on Taking the Human Out of the Equation
You devoted your life to human-driven transportation, engineering SUVs at Ford and taking Hyundai (as U.S. CEO and president) to record levels of sales in the U...
From ACM Opinion
Nsa Director Rogers on DNC Hacking, Cyberwarfare and Isis
When it comes to warfare—the weapons, the budgets, the personnel—America is king. But the United States has not yet conquered cyberwarfare.
From ACM Opinion
The Lessons of the DNC Hack
Just days after Robert Gates became secretary of defense in December 2006, in the middle of George W. Bush’s second term, he found himself so stunned by the volume...
From ACM Opinion
The Doom of Your Memories Doesn't Really Exist
If you played Doom during its heyday in the 90s, I have some disappointing news: it's not as frightening as you remember.
From ACM Opinion
Dark Patterns Are Designed to Trick You (and They're All Over the Web)
It happens to the best of us. After looking closely at a bank statement or cable bill, suddenly a small, unrecognizable charge appears.
From ACM Opinion
The Science That Fed Frankenstein
In 1816, a teenager began to compose what many view as the first true work of science fiction—and unleashed one of the most subversive attacks on modern science...
From ACM Opinion
Could Brain Training Prevent Dementia?
It's been a lousy couple of years for researchers who study the effects of computerized brain training.
From ACM Opinion