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Communications of the ACM

Opinion Archive


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The opinion archive provides access to past opinion stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.

March 2019


From ACM Opinion

Huawei's Problem Isn't Chinese Backdoors. It's Buggy Software

Huawei's Problem Isn't Chinese Backdoors. It's Buggy Software

A report on Thursday from a British government oversight group found that Chinese telecom-equipment maker Huawei has basic but deeply problematic flaws in its product code that create security risks.


From ACM Opinion

Robots on the Run

Robots on the Run

Young animals gallop across fields, climb trees and immediately find their feet with enviable grace after they fall.


From ACM Opinion

Cars Are Regulated for Safety, Why Not Information Technology?

Cars Are Regulated for Safety, Why Not Information Technology?

As the computing industry grapples with its role in society, many people, both in the field and outside it, are talking about a crisis of ethics.


From ACM Opinion

Facebook and Google Aren't the Only Ones Tracking Your Clicks

Facebook and Google Aren't the Only Ones Tracking Your Clicks

Criticism of big tech companies that track us across the internet without our informed consent misses a bigger picture: There are hundreds of ad-tracking companies that do the same, and regulators have been powerless to rein …


From ACM Opinion

The ­ncanny Valley Nobody's Talking About: Eerie Robot Voices

The ­ncanny Valley Nobody's Talking About: Eerie Robot Voices

Call it the Great Convergence of Creepiness. The first bit, the uncanny valley, we're all familiar with by now: If a humanoid robot looks super realistic, but not quite realistic enough, it freaks us out.


From ACM Opinion

How 2D Semiconductors Could Extend Moore's Law

How 2D Semiconductors Could Extend Moore's Law

The number of components in electronic circuits has doubled every two years since the 1960s—a trend known as Moore's law.


From ACM Opinion

No, Scientists Didn't Just 'Reverse Time' with a Quantum Computer

No, Scientists Didn't Just 'Reverse Time' with a Quantum Computer


From ACM Opinion

The FAA Rigorously Tested the Boeing 737's Software

The FAA Rigorously Tested the Boeing 737's Software

Two Boeing 737 Max 8 airplanes have crashed under similar circumstances in the past six months, one in October in Indonesia and the other in Ethiopia last week.


From ACM Opinion

A Second 737 Max Crash Raises Questions about Airplane Automation

A Second 737 Max Crash Raises Questions about Airplane Automation

As you read this, over a million people are in flight. Close to a third of the commercial airplanes in the sky at any given moment are Boeing 737s: it is the best-selling jetliner in history.


From ACM Opinion

Berners-Lee Says World Wide Web, at 30, Must Emerge from 'Adolescence'

Berners-Lee Says World Wide Web, at 30, Must Emerge from 'Adolescence'

The fraying World Wide Web needs to rediscover its strengths and grow into maturity, its designer Tim Berners-Lee said on Monday, marking the 30th anniversary of the collaborative software project his supervisor initially dubbed…


From ACM Opinion

FBI Head Christopher Wray: We Can't Let Criminals Hide Behind Encryption

FBI Head Christopher Wray: We Can't Let Criminals Hide Behind Encryption

Encryption should have limits. That's the message FBI Director Christopher Wray had for cybersecurity experts Tuesday.


From ACM Opinion

NSA's Top Policy Advisor: It's Time to Start Putting Teeth in Cyber Deterrence

NSA's Top Policy Advisor: It's Time to Start Putting Teeth in Cyber Deterrence

At an industry event in Hanover, Maryland last week, former National Security Council cybersecurity policy coordinator and acting Homeland Security Advisor Rob Joyce—now back at the National Security Agency as senior advisor …


From ACM Opinion

Limiting Your Digital Footprints in a Surveillance State

Limiting Your Digital Footprints in a Surveillance State

What are your most important tech tools for reporting in Shanghai, especially with a government known for surveillance?


From ACM Opinion

Are We Really the Smartest Kid on the Cosmic Block?

Are We Really the Smartest Kid on the Cosmic Block?

It is unclear how many intelligent civilizations have arisen in the Milky Way galaxy so far, but if some have, a pressing question comes to mind: Were they or are they more intelligent than we are?


From ACM Opinion

'The Risk Paid Off': How Apple Prevailed in the ­.S.-China Trade War

'The Risk Paid Off': How Apple Prevailed in the ­.S.-China Trade War

President Donald Trump's trade war with China has left a trail of economic wreckage across American industries from soybean farms to auto manufacturers.


From ACM News

China Is Catching ­p to the ­S on Artificial Intelligence Research

China Is Catching ­p to the ­S on Artificial Intelligence Research

Researchers, companies and countries around the world are racing to explore—and exploit—the possibilities of artificial intelligence technology.


From ACM Opinion

Don't Let Robots Pull the Trigger

Don't Let Robots Pull the Trigger

The killer machines are coming. Robotic weapons that target and destroy without human supervision are poised to start a revolution in warfare comparable to the invention of gunpowder or the atomic bomb.


From ACM Opinion

Beware of Plausible Predictions of Fantasy Materials

Beware of Plausible Predictions of Fantasy Materials

The hunt is on for materials that have exotic properties, to enhance quantum computers, touch screens and electronic displays, and to double the efficiency of solar cells, for example. 


From Communications of the ACM

Questioning a New Intellectual Property Right for Press Publishers

Questioning a New Intellectual Property Right for Press Publishers

Considering the implications of the "link tax" provision of the proposed EU Directive for the Digital Single Market for traditional press publishers.


From Communications of the ACM

Potential 'Dark Sides' of Leisure Technology Use in Youth

Potential 'Dark Sides' of Leisure Technology Use in Youth

Time for balanced reflections on technology.


From Communications of the ACM

An Interview with William Hugh Murray

An Interview with William Hugh Murray

A discussion of the rapidly evolving realm of practical cyber security.


From Communications of the ACM

It's About Power

It's About Power

A call to rethink ethics and equity in computing education.


From Communications of the ACM

From Computational Thinking to Computational Action

From Computational Thinking to Computational Action

Envisioning computing education that both teaches and empowers.

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