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
Why Robots Will Always Need S
"Human beings are ashamed to have been born instead of made," wrote the philosopher Günther Anders in 1956. Our shame has only deepened as our machines have grown...
From ACM Opinion
The Second Job You Don’t Know You Have
Technology has knocked the bottom rung out of the employment ladder, which has sent youth unemployment around the globe skyrocketing and presented us with a serious...
From ACM Opinion
Hacking the Brain
The perfectibility of the human mind is a theme that has captured our imagination for centuries—the notion that, with the right tools, the right approach, the right...
From ACM Opinion
How the Battle For the Future of the Web Is Shaped By Economics
There are two stories people are trying to tell right now about the future of the Internet.
From ACM Opinion
Attention White-Collar Workers: The Robots Are Coming For Your Jobs
From the self-checkout aisle of the grocery store to the sports section of the newspaper, robots and computer software are increasingly taking the place of humans...
From ACM Opinion
Crispr Germline Engineering—the Community Speaks
With the first papers appearing in the literature that describe CRISPR-Cas9 engineering of human reproductive cells, are we at a new Asilomar moment?
From ACM Opinion
Google's Vint Cerf Warns Against Fragmentation of Internet
Internet pioneer Vinton G. Cerf warned Thursday that political and technological forces threaten universal access and integrity, which he described as the foundation...
From ACM Opinion
The Culture Wars Invade Science Fiction
Theodore Beale had a big day when the nominations for science fiction's annual Hugo Awards were announced last month: He received two nominations for his editing...
From ACM Opinion
Moore's Law Turns 50
On April 19, 1965, just over 50 years ago, Gordon Moore, then the head of research for Fairchild Semiconductor and later one of the co-founders of Intel, was asked...
From ACM Opinion
New Ways to Crash the Market
Five years ago, on the afternoon of May 6, 2010, the Dow and the S. & P. fell more than six per cent in a matter of minutes, losing a trillion dollars in value.
From ACM Opinion
Intel's Gordon Moore Speculates on the Future of Tech and the End of Moore's Law
Gordon Moore appeared in person to talk about the 50th anniversary of Moore's Law, the prediction that he made that has fueled the tech industry and driven the...
From ACM Opinion
'rise of the Robots' and 'shadow Work'
In the late 20th century, while the blue-collar working class gave way to the forces of globalization and automation, the educated elite looked on with benign condescension...
From ACM Opinion
Why the Ruling Against the Nsa's Phone Records Program Could Have Huge Implications
A federal appeals court ruling that the National Security Agency's collection of millions of Americans' phone records is illegal could undercut more than just that...
From ACM Opinion
Does Artificial Intelligence Pose a Threat?
After decades as a sci-fi staple, artificial intelligence has leapt into the mainstream.
From ACM Opinion
The Void's Creator Details His Vision For nleashing Virtual Reality's Full Potential
In a 60-by-60-foot room in Salt Lake City, Ken Bretschneider is taking virtual reality experiences to another level.
From ACM Opinion
Are We to Become Gods, the Destroyers of Our World?
In the stylish new sci-fi thriller Ex Machina, Frankenstein's old theme re-emerges in a beautifully designed setting: Instead of the Gothic castle we have a spectacular...
From ACM Opinion
Concerns of an Artificial Intelligence Pioneer
In January, the British-American computer scientist Stuart Russell drafted and became the first signatory of an open letter calling for researchers to look beyond...
From ACM Opinion
Quantum Computers Will Make Your Laptop Look Like an Abacus
The race to make the first quantum computer is becoming as important as the race 75 years ago to get the first nuke. It could change the balance of power in politics...
From ACM Opinion