2001: A Space Odyssey Page #16

HAL:

operational at the HAL plant in

Urbana, Illinois, on January

12th, 1991. My first instructor

was Mr. Arkany. He taught me

to sing a song... it goes

like this... "Daisy, Daisy, give

me your answer do. I'm half;

crazy all for the love of

you... etc.,"

COMPUTER CONTINUES

TO SING SONG BECOMING

MORE AND MORE CHILDISH

AND MAKING MISTAKES AND

GOING OFF-KEY. IT

FINALLY STOPS COMPLETELY.

C143

BOWMAN GOES TO AN

AREA MARKED 'EMERGENCY

POWER AND LIFE SUPPORT'.

HE KEYS SOME SWITCHES

AND WE SEE THE LIGHTS GO

ON.

NEARBY, ANOTHER BOARD

'EMERGENCY MANUAL

CONTROLS'.

HE GOES TO THIS BOARD

AND KEYS 'CLOSE POD BAY

DOORS', 'CLOSE AIR LOCK

DOORS', etc.,

12/1/65 c117

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C144

WE SEE THE VARIOUS

DOORS CLOSING.

C145

POD BAY. BOWMAN

IN SPACE SUIT OBTAINS

NEW ALIGNMENT:

TELESCOPE, NEW

AZIMUTH COMPONENT.

C146

BOWMAN IN POD EXITS

POD BAY.

DISSOLVE:

12/1/65 c118

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C147

CENTRIFUGE:

EVERYTHING NORMAL

AGAIN.

MISSION CONTROL:

Lastly, we want you to know that

work on the recovery vehicle is

still on schedule and that nothing

that has happened should

substantially lessen the probability

of your safe recovery, or prevent

partial achevement of some of

the mission objectives. (pause)

And now Simonson has a few ideas

on what went wrong with the

computer. I'll pu him on...

C148

CUT TO SIMONSON:

SIMONSON:

Hello, Dave. I think we may be on

to an explanation of the trouble with

the Hal 9000 computer.

We believe it all started about two

months ago when you and Frank

interrogated the computer about

the Mission.

(con't)

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C148

CONTINUED:

SIMONSON (con't)

You may have forgotten it, but

we've been running through all

the monitor tapes. Do you

remember this?

POOLE'S VOICE

The purpose of this mission is no

more than to carry out a

continuation of the space program

and further our general knowledge

of the planets. Is this true?

HAL'S VOICE

That is true.

SIMONSON:

Well, I'm afaid Hal was lying.

He had been programmed to lie

about this one subject for secur-

ity reasons which we'll explain

later.

The true purpose of the Mission

was to have been explained to you

by Mission Commander Kaminsky,

on his revival. Hal knew this and

he knew the actual mission, but

he couldn't tell you the truth when

you challenged him. Under orders

(con't)

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C148

CONTINUED:

SIMONSON (con't)

from earth he was forced to lie.

In everything except this he had

the usual reinforced truth program-

ming.

We believe his truth programming

and the instructions to lie,

gradually resulted in an

incompatible conflict, and

facedc with this dilemman, he

developed, for want of a better

description, neurotic symptoms.

It's not difficult to suppose that

these symptoms would centre on

the communication link with

Earth, for he may have blamed

us for his incompatible program-

ming.

Following this lin of thought, we

suspected that the last straw for him

was the possibility of disconnection.

Since he became operational, he had

never known unconsciousness. It

must have seemed the equivalent to

death.

(con't)

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C148

CONTINUED:

SIMONSON (con't)

At this point, he, presumably,

took whatever actions he thought

appropriate to protect himself

from what must have seemed to

him to be his human tormentors.

If I cane speak in human terms,

I don't think we can blame him

too much. We have ordered him

to disobey his conscience.

Well, that's it. It's very

speculative, but we think it is

a possible explanation. Anyway,

good luck on the rest of the

Mission and I'm giving you back to

Bernard.

C149

CUT TO MISSION CONTROL.

MISSION CONTROL:

Hello, Dave. Now, I'm going to

play for you a pre-taped briefing

which had been stored in Hal's

memory and would have been

played for you by Mission Com-

mmander Kaminsky, when he,

(con't)

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C149

CONTINUED:

MISSION CONTROL (con't)

had been revived. The briefing is

by Doctor Heywood Floyd. Here it

is...

12/13/65 c123

------------------------------------------------------------------------

C150

FLOYD'S RECORDED

BRIEFING:

FLOYD:

Good day, gentlemen. When you

see this briefing, I presume you

will be nearing your destination,

Saturn. I hope that you've had a

pleasant and uneventful trip and

that the rest of your mission

continues in the same manner. I

should like to fill you in on some

more of the details on which

Mission Commander Kaminsky

will have already briefed you.

Thirteen months before the launch

date of your Saturn mission, on

April 12th, 2001, the first evidence

for intelligent life outside the Earth

was discovered.

It was found buried at a depth of

fifteen metres in the crater Tycho.

No news of this was ever announced,

and the event had been kept

secret since then, for reasons which

I will later explain.

Soon after it was uncovered, it

emitted a powerful blast of

(con't)

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C150

CONTINUED:

FLOYD (con't)

radiation in the radio spectrum

which seems to have triggered

by the Lunar sunrise.

Luckily for those at the site, it

proved harmless.

Perhaps you can imagine our

astonishment when we later found

it was aimed precisely at Saturn.

A lot of thought went into the

question of wether or not it was

sun-triggered, as it seemed

illogical to deliberately bury a

sun-powered device.

Burying it could only shield it

from the sun, since its intense

magnetic field made it otherwise

easily detectable.

We finally concluded that the only

reason you might bury a sun-

powered device would be to keep

it inactive until it would be

uncovered, at which time it would

absorb sunlight and trigger itself.

(con't)

12/14/65 c125

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C150

CONTINUED:

FLOYD:

What is its purpose? I wish we

knew. The object was buried on

the moon about four million years

ago, when our ancestors were

primative man-apes.

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