The beauty of this film is that it is a Pandora's box of philosophical musing. The argument is as infinite as the space that sets the film. So, let's open things up with a doozie of a question. Class members: you will be graded for your contribution to the thread. Alumni: You will be intrinsicly rewarded by continuing to eat of our tree of film knowledge. Mwahahahaha! Sorry. I get carried away.
Question: Did HAL make a genuine error about the communications device, and thus found himself dragged unwillingly into a mortal conflict with the Jupiter mission crew, or was the "mistake" part of a deliberate plot by HAL to isolate, divide and destroy them? Why do you think either theory is true?
My personal feeling about the series of events of HAL killing the crew is that he feels the humans are inferior. This movie is about the evolution of man starting as monkeys and working our way to star child. When we elevate to star child and surpass HAL. When HAL finds the error, I feel it's because he hates being a slave to inferior beings. Lets look at the monolith. The monolith causes advances in our human lives. First it teaches us to use tools. The second occurrence allows us to develop HAL so we can travel to Jupiter and eventually become a star child. The monolith allows the second evolution of man to create HAL but HAL in many ways is the one with the power of the second coming. Unlike the bone, humans don't have full control over HAL, because he embodies the second coming. Humans haven't evolved, their tools have. This shows an inferiority between the two and HAL sees this thus kills the crew to no longer be a slave. The entire time it's a planned action by HAL to eliminate the crew.
ReplyDeleteI think...
ReplyDeleteThat HAL only killed the crew members because of "human error" even though the error was in himself. He believed that humans were the cause for most errors with anything and thus causing him to kill off the crew because "THIS MISSION IS TOO IMPORTANT"-HAL
That's just me though. =)
I actually think that Hal did make a genuine error. Being created by humans who are subject to error, wouldn't there undoubtedly be an error in his configuration? Also, the fact is that Hal was designed to think like a human, so therefore would have the same emotions as the human psyche. When he saw the two men speaking in the pod, he felt betrayed, dejected, and sought revenge when he saw that they were planning to disconnect him for a minor error that they themselves as humans programmed into him.
ReplyDeleteI think it was a combination of both. Hal had a glitch, but it was a glitch brought on by the humans because they created the problem. This glitch lead to Hal having a mind of its own. Hal was given the ability to control the entire ship. This power put the lives of the crew members into his hands, and he abused his privileges. Hal was a robot. He wasn't suppose to act on impulses. This series of events is very similar to the robots in I, Robot. The robots were created to serve the humans just as Hal. The one robot Sonny, however, was the robot with a real name and he had a mind of its own. The similarity to 2001 was prevalent when Hal told Dave he was scared. In I, Robot Sonny told Detective Spooner he had feelings and dreams.
ReplyDeleteI believe that HAL was completely aware of his actions.
ReplyDeleteHis plea to not be shut down during the climax only strengthens this, in my opinion. Because he was so intelligent and practical, he attempted to prey on Keir Dullea's character's psyche, for sympathy.
I think HAL, being designed by humans, could have been the victim of an error, yet, he and many others claimed the HAL system had a 'flawless' record. For me, this would just seem too strange.
HAL was practical. As was mentioned, he did state "This mission is too important".
HAL was designed to think like a human, yet was completely incapable of empathy and any other feelings. He was a machine. He was designed to assist people in a mission. He only knew what was supposed to be done and was going to follow through on it, no matter what.
He had orders, and was programed, yet he had developed a mind of his own. And in his objective judgement, the mission was more significant than the lives of any of the crew members.
Basically I feel Hal looked at the ship and saw it perfect except for one small detail: it was run by fallible humans. He saw Dave and the rest of the crew as weaknesses and without them the ship could run more practically. While HAL was designed to behave like a human, he was instead treated like a God. He was gifted with all of the many of the qualities of humanity: intelligence, the ability to plot and plan, but he was divided from the important parts of humanity, love, compassion, caring. Hal's actions were driven by what was practical, and humans as a species are anything but practical. His actions were in a way an attempt at survival of the fittest, removing the hazards of biological life for the efficiency of mechanization.
ReplyDeleteHal killed the crew members only beacuse of human error. I think that he "created a monster" in the communication divice and himself. beleving that human couse most of the errors out there, is what caused hal to kill the crew members.
ReplyDeleteThe senator has spoken!
i feel that HAL deliborately planned out this destruction of the jupiter crew after the two members talked about over riding HAL's system. HAL did make a genuine error but for some reason retaliated in the crew's plans. why would HAL say, "I promise i'll be good..." he basically apologized and begged for forgiveness... sounds like a guilty computer...odd, HAL at first made an error but delibaretly retaliated against the JUPITER SPACE CREW
ReplyDeleteHAL killed the crew members because he could not believe that he had committed an error. Because he is a computer his thoughts are restricted to statistics and previous statistics caused him to believe that the error was not his own. When he learned that the humans were going to disconnect him, he assumed that they were being unreasonable and he killed them to preserve himself.
ReplyDeleteI think HAL was well-aware of what he was doing by destroying the crew. When his existance was first being explained, it was established that he had human emotions and thoughts because he was too smart. He was too smart for his own good. After hearing crew members debating whether to destroy him or not, he becomes angry and plans to seek revenge, which explains him turning to the dark side.
ReplyDeleteI'm really sorry I didn't see the rest of 2001 on Friday! I can try to contribute a little from what I know when I talked to my dad about the movie. He says it's one of his favorite movies of all time, so he told me about Hal. While computers are advanced technology developed by human beings, Hal seems corrupt because he transforms into a controlling force. The crew of the ship, from what I can tell, submits completely to the tyrannical actions of Hal. He even kills them! He tells them what to do. I'm sure he's developed a conscience, just like Auto from Wall-E. That's the jist of my knowledge anyway.
ReplyDeleteI'm fairly certain it was aliens.
ReplyDeleteThe entire time. Aliens.
I apologize for blowing your mind.
Hahaha Oh Gracie...
ReplyDeleteI think it was a deliberate act of malevolence. Even if Hal did make an honest mistake, it doesnt cchange the fact the he deliberatly killed a crew member, not only one, but the rest of the people on the ship. If he truely had the emotions of human, then he should have been able to feel humility and admit his mistakes. I think the comments of "i'm scared" and so on where a ploy to try to save himself.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kayla. HAL knew what he was doing, he knew it was wrong. When he was pleading for his own life, it lead me to believe that what he was doing was of his own choice. He did not want man to overpower him, he wanted to overpower the human man.
ReplyDeleteI just have to say this movie personally creeped me out because I know that we are heading into something like this. We have become so dependent on technology that it will start to rule us. Businesses already use this dependence for their advantages and do not realize the consequences of throwing advanced technology into the public's faces.
Well I wasn't here on Friday so I basically saw the beginning and the end of 2001 with no middle but I guess that's ironic because this movie begins with an ending of a species and ends with a beginning of another. I can't respond to the question posted because I absolutely have no idea of what people are talking about BUT I do like the irony of its start and its end.
ReplyDeletePS Thanks for the Surprise Birthday Party!!!!!! =D
ReplyDeleteI think that HAL is just trying to prove that he's better than humans. The whole situation was confusing and with my short attention span, I couldn't really make any other conclusion about HAL.
ReplyDelete