HAL+9000


 * [[image:http://people.ict.usc.edu/~pynadath/images/hal-9000-eye.jpg align="right"]]HAL 9000**

Zachary Baum

The **H**euristically programmed **AL**gorithmic computer, or "HAL 9000" for short, was the sentient shipboard computer in the classic space opera film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. He speaks in a soft masculine voice, and is represented throughout the ship, //Discovery One//, by glowing red camera lenses.While an artificial intelligence, HAL is capable of imitating human emotions, can think independently, and even shows a desire towards self preservation. Yet it is HAL's artificial humanity that leads him from a shining beacon of efficiency to killing off the crew members he was sworn to protect in order to prevent being shut down.

In the beginning of the film, HAL states in an interview, quite pridefully, that no 9000 series computer has ever been known to commit any mistake, ever. He boasts that he is "foolproof and incapable of error," foreshadowing his belief that he is more important to the mission than the crew. The mission is for five astronauts, two pilots and three scientists, to fly to Jupiter to investigate the source of a strange black monolith found buried on the moon. (The scientists are kept in stasis pods to conserve resources until they arrive.) At first things go well, with HAL operating at maximun effiecincy. But HAL malfunctions, making a false report that the communication antenna has malfunctioned. A series of events leads to the pilots deciding to shut down HAL, but having one of the pilots, Frank, replace the atenna anyway to avoid HAL's suspicions. By now HAL's bizarre sense of logic has driven him insane. He believes that if they shut him down, the mission will be compromised. So to prevent them from shutting him down, he begins killing off all the astronauts. HAL knows of their plan, and severs Frank's lifeline while he's in space. Not knowing HAL was behind it, Dave, the other pilot, takes a pod to retrieve Frank's body. While Dave is in space, HAL shuts down the life support of the three scientists, killing them. Dave is the last astrnaut lest alive, and is still in space when HAL refuses to open the pod bay doors. Dave uses an emergency airlock to return to the ship and makes it to HAL's core, where he turns off all of HAL's higher functions until he loses all sense of self and becomes a manual ship computer.

1. Sleak, modern design shows HAL's inhumanity. 2. Ominous red "eye" shows no emotion, only logic. 3. Red represents anger, fear, and negativity. 4. Calming monotone voice 5.

HAL's Big Scene