acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

Recent Opinion


Articles Interviews Vardi's Insights Chien's Vantage Opinion Archive Refine your search:
dateMore Than a Year Ago
subjectSoftware
authorThe Atlantic
bg-corner

My Pacemaker Is Tracking Me from Inside My Body
From ACM Opinion

My Pacemaker Is Tracking Me from Inside My Body

A month before turning 34, I received an unexpected birthday gift: a cloud-connected pacemaker.

The New Way Your Computer Can Be Attacked
From ACM Opinion

The New Way Your Computer Can Be Attacked

On January 3, the world learned about a series of major security vulnerabilities in modern microprocessors. Called Spectre and Meltdown, these vulnerabilities were...

8 Overly Confident, Mostly Pessimistic Predictions About Tech in 2018
From ACM Opinion

8 Overly Confident, Mostly Pessimistic Predictions About Tech in 2018

It was a very strange year for technology companies. They have become a "bipartisan whipping boy," a new sexist institution, responsible for the muddying of the...

Driverless Cars Could Make Transportation Free For Everyone, With a Catch
From ACM Opinion

Driverless Cars Could Make Transportation Free For Everyone, With a Catch

As self-driving cars inch closer to everyday reality, journalists, futurists, economists, and ethicists have weighed in with numerous predictions about autonomous...

A ­nified Theory of Meme Death
From ACM Opinion

A ­nified Theory of Meme Death

Memes aren't built to last. This is an accepted fact of online life.

How Driverless Cars Will Change the Feel of Cities
From ACM Opinion

How Driverless Cars Will Change the Feel of Cities

It's 6 p.m. in Tempe, Arizona and pitch-black outside. I'm standing in the middle of a five-lane thoroughfare, among a group of people too numerous for the narrow...

Should Children Form Emotional Bonds with Robots?
From ACM Opinion

Should Children Form Emotional Bonds with Robots?

When i brought the robot home from the Apple Store, I knew I was inviting a new kind of strangeness into our lives.

Does Facebook Even Know How to Control Facebook?
From ACM Opinion

Does Facebook Even Know How to Control Facebook?

Later today, executives from Facebook, Google, and Twitter will go before the Senate Intelligence Committee to testify about the ways that Russian operatives used...

What Facebook Did to American Democracy
From ACM Opinion

What Facebook Did to American Democracy

In the media world, as in so many other realms, there is a sharp discontinuity in the timeline: before the 2016 election, and after.

The Coming Software Apocalypse
From ACM News

The Coming Software Apocalypse

There were six hours during the night of April 10, 2014, when the entire population of Washington State had no 911 service.

What, Exactly, Were Russians Trying to Do With Those Facebook Ads?
From ACM Opinion

What, Exactly, Were Russians Trying to Do With Those Facebook Ads?

Many questions remain about the ads purchased by Russian-linked accounts during the 2016 presidential election.

Is There Any Hope For Facebook's Fact-Checking Efforts?
From ACM Opinion

Is There Any Hope For Facebook's Fact-Checking Efforts?

Facebook's fact-checking efforts are on the rocks.

You Are Already Living Inside a Computer
From ACM Opinion

You Are Already Living Inside a Computer

Suddenly, everything is a computer. Phones, of course, and televisions. Also toasters and door locks, baby monitors and juicers, doorbells and gas grills. Even ...

When Companies Get Hacked, Should They Be Allowed to Hack Back?
From ACM Opinion

When Companies Get Hacked, Should They Be Allowed to Hack Back?

There is an old debate (at least, counting in internet years) that tends to crop up after major cybersecurity breaches such as the widespread WannaCry ransomware...

Donald Trump's 'impenetrable Cybersecurity' Is Pure Fantasy
From ACM Opinion

Donald Trump's 'impenetrable Cybersecurity' Is Pure Fantasy

Nothing connected to the internet is safe from hackers. And I mean nothing.

For Google, Everything Is a Popularity Contest
From ACM Opinion

For Google, Everything Is a Popularity Contest

When I saw that Google had introduced a "Classic Papers" section of Google Scholar, its search tool for academic journals, I couldn't help but stroke my chin professorially...

Minitel, the Open Network Before the Internet
From ACM Opinion

Minitel, the Open Network Before the Internet

In 1991, most Americans had not yet heard of the internet.

The Mysterious Printer Code That Could Have Led the Fbi to Reality Winner
From ACM Opinion

The Mysterious Printer Code That Could Have Led the Fbi to Reality Winner

Across the computer security world yesterday, heads were shaking.

Who Are the Shadow Brokers?
From ACM Opinion

Who Are the Shadow Brokers?

In 2013, a mysterious group of hackers that calls itself the Shadow Brokers stole a few disks full of National Security Agency secrets.

Online Voting Won't Save Democracy
From ACM Opinion

Online Voting Won't Save Democracy

Technology can do a lot more to make our elections more secure and reliable, and to ensure that participation in the democratic process is available to all.
Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account