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dateMore Than a Year Ago
subjectTheory
authorScientific American
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What Will It Take For Humans to Colonize the Milky Way?
From ACM Opinion

What Will It Take For Humans to Colonize the Milky Way?

The idea that humans will eventually travel to and inhabit other parts of our galaxy was well expressed by the early Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky...

If There Are Aliens Out There, Where Are They?
From ACM Opinion

If There Are Aliens Out There, Where Are They?

Physicist Enrico Fermi famously asked the question "Where are they?" to express his surprise over the absence of any signs for the existence of other intelligent...

Better Than Sci-Fi
From ACM Opinion

Better Than Sci-Fi

Science fiction has imagined some pretty wild ideas about the universe and our place in it.

Oh the Places We Won't Go: Humans Will Settle Mars, and Nowhere Else
From ACM Opinion

Oh the Places We Won't Go: Humans Will Settle Mars, and Nowhere Else

Humans will become a multi-planet species by making it to Mars, but no farther.

Human Missions to Mars Will Look Completely Different from The Martian
From ACM Opinion

Human Missions to Mars Will Look Completely Different from The Martian

Landing in U.S. theaters last week, Ridley Scott's The Martian is being acclaimed as one of the most realistic portrayals of human space exploration ever filmed...

Searching For Life in Martian Water Will Be Very, Very Tricky
From ACM Opinion

Searching For Life in Martian Water Will Be Very, Very Tricky

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...

Do We Need to Prepare For the Robot ­prising?
From ACM Opinion

Do We Need to Prepare For the Robot ­prising?

For most of my life, I've been disappointed in robots.

­sing Technology to Break the Speed Barrier of Reading
From ACM Opinion

­sing Technology to Break the Speed Barrier of Reading

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.

Why Neuroscience Needs Hackers
From ACM Opinion

Why Neuroscience Needs Hackers

There was a time when neuroscientists could only dream of having such a problem.

Move Over, Siri—the Next Generation of Virtual Assistants Is Almost Here
From ACM Opinion

Move Over, Siri—the Next Generation of Virtual Assistants Is Almost Here

Virtual voice-controlled assistants such as Siri, Cortana and Google Now are magical.

Will Artificial Intelligence Surpass Our Own?
From ACM Opinion

Will Artificial Intelligence Surpass Our Own?

Famed science-fiction writer Fredric Brown (1906–1972) delighted in creating the shortest of short stories. "Answer," published in 1954, encapsulated a prescient...

Does a Multiverse Fermi Paradox Disprove the Multiverse?
From ACM Opinion

Does a Multiverse Fermi Paradox Disprove the Multiverse?

Having just orbited our way through another summer solstice, it feels like time to let slip some more speculative ideas before the hot days of the northern hemisphere...

What Is the Big Secret Surrounding Stingray Surveillance?
From ACM Opinion

What Is the Big Secret Surrounding Stingray Surveillance?

Given the amount of mobile phone traffic that cell phone towers transmit, it is no wonder law enforcement agencies target these devices as a rich source of data...

Will Millimeter Waves Maximize 5g Wireless?
From ACM Opinion

Will Millimeter Waves Maximize 5g Wireless?

Every decade or so since the first cellular networks appeared the companies that make mobile devices and the networks linking them have worked out new requirements...

The Pluto Punch-Through
From ACM Opinion

The Pluto Punch-Through

On July 14, 2015 NASA's New Horizons spacecraft finally reaches Pluto. But the encounter is brief.

Building an Earth-Size Telescope, 1 Station at a Time
From ACM Opinion

Building an Earth-Size Telescope, 1 Station at a Time

Imagine a trio of aerobatic aircraft. Over the years they've gotten very good at their routine. But they want to add another five or six or seven members.

Fateful Phone Call Spawned Moore's Law
From ACM Opinion

Fateful Phone Call Spawned Moore's Law

In their new book, Moore's Law: The Life of Gordon Moore, Silicon Valley's Quiet Revolutionary, authors Arnold Thackray, David C. Brock and Rachel Jones chronicle...

The Inner Lives of Robots: An Interview with Filmmaker Alex Garland
From ACM Opinion

The Inner Lives of Robots: An Interview with Filmmaker Alex Garland

Like self-replicating machines, robot movies are taking over Hollywood.

Watch the First Artificial Gravity Experiment
From ACM Opinion

Watch the First Artificial Gravity Experiment

Gravity, as the old joke goes, sucks.

How to Choose the Form of an Infographic: It's All About Context
From ACM Opinion

How to Choose the Form of an Infographic: It's All About Context

As a graphics designer, I have a love/hate relationship with circles.
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