The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
I've been excited about the Array of Things—a network of beautifully designed sensors poised to capture and make public real-time, non-personal data about the livability of a city—ever since it (they?) started following me on…
There's something about the Red Planet—so close yet so far, inhospitable yet perhaps not totally uninhabitable—that keeps us dreaming about getting there one day.
Today's supercomputers lack the power to model accurately many aspects of the real world, from the impact of cloud systems on Earth's climate to the processing ability of the human brain.
NASA scientists announced today the best evidence yet that Mars, once thought dry, sterile and dead, may yet have life in it: Liquid water still flows on at least some parts of the Red Planet, seeping from slopes to accumulate…
Le's be clear: This is a parlor trick, not neuroscience. Nonetheless, with the help of some friends, I was able to make a toy shark fly through the air using brain waves.
College students tell me they know how to look someone in the eye and type on their phones at the same time, their split attention undetected.
Pedro Domingos is a serious guy with big ambitions.
In an interview, professors Hermann Winner and Walther Wachenfeld from the Technical University of Darmstadt's Automotive Engineering research group discuss autonomous driving's risks, challenges, and opportunities.
The distinction between man and machine is under siege.
Micha Benoliel grew up in France and launched his first technology startup there, but he never forgot the atmosphere of adventure and optimism in San Francisco, where he studied in the early 1990s.
Conservatives and liberals interminably debate the merits of "the free market" versus "the government."
Terrorism is a game of both revolution and evolution.
Here's a quick story you’ve probably heard before, followed by one you probably haven't.
Late last month a few hundred lucky users of Facebook's mobile messaging app got an unusual new contact to talk with: M, a virtual assistant powered by a mixture of algorithms and human operators.
At the heart of capitalism is the concept of creative destruction.
I woke up on Saturday to a heartbreaking front-page article in the New York Times about a terminally ill young woman who chooses to freeze her brain.
For most of my life, I've been disappointed in robots.
Until recently, AI seemed firmly stuck in the realm of science fiction.
Mitra Dutta, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, explains how a $3.3 million NSF grant has improved UIC's gender balance of science and engineer professors.
Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg hosted an online Q&A session on his personal Facebook page.
I grew up in a tiny New York City apartment, packed in alongside our four cats and my father's immense personal library of some 3000 books.
Falmouth University professor Simon Colton works with software that behaves in ways that would be deemed creative if observed in humans. In an interview, Colton describes his work with software which is programmed to make its…
President Barack Obama arrived in Alaska on Monday for a three-day tour during which he will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Alaska Arctic.
After weeks of investigation, volunteer editors on English Wikipedia announced that they blocked 381 user accounts for "black hat" editing.
There are seminal books, movies, articles, and more that you've been meaning to get to but just haven't made the time for.
It is possible, according to many sources, to become invisible, but you must be patient, methodical, and willing to eat almost anything.
Conceptual toolkits for projects that work.
Can computing history be both inspiring and accurate?
Seeking a better understanding of computing through a mixture of theory and appropriate experimental evidence.
Technology boffins argue the new technologies of intelligent personal learning environments will put universities out of business. Will the purported successor, an automated global virtual university, be up to the task of professional…