This film is a narrative on technology and space. It focuses on artificial intelligence, Hal (the computer on the spaceship) is the main antagonist. Hal is programmed to respond as a machine but displays human behavior with speech only through its intonation. For instance, in one of the scenes it refers to itself: "In my mind...", Hal does not think for itself, it is supposed to perform for its thinker, it is there to serve, not be served...there to be used. Someone else did the thinking for Hal.
In the film, Hal decides for itself to not follow its programming when it discovers a plot against it by the two astronauts on a mission to Jupiter to shut it down in order to protect the mission. It thinks it has a mind of its own. The computer was a Hal 9000 series that held a track record of nil errors. In this particular mission, however, it did not respond and caused the death of one of the astronauts.
According to Turing's article "Mind", we see that computers are "sometimes described as having free will":
"An interesting variant on the idea of a digital computer is a 'digital computer with a random element'. These have instructions involving the throwing of a die or some equivalent electronic process; one such instruction might for instance be, 'Throw the die and put the resulting number into store 1000'. Sometimes such a machine is described as having free will (though I would not use this phrase myself). It is not normally possible to determine from observing a machine whether it has a random element, for a similar effect can be produced by such devices as making the choices depend on the digits of the decimal for ..." [445]
Could this have been the case with Hal? Is it a question of 'storage' or 'random element'? This film opened questions of possibilities, many possibilities:
Can machines get the better of humans while creating superhuman abilities? Could we as humans 'out machine' ourselves as a species?
Or...is it a question of fear of not controlling humans' own artificial intelligence: "it's just a glitch in the computer".
In the film, Hal decides for itself to not follow its programming when it discovers a plot against it by the two astronauts on a mission to Jupiter to shut it down in order to protect the mission. It thinks it has a mind of its own. The computer was a Hal 9000 series that held a track record of nil errors. In this particular mission, however, it did not respond and caused the death of one of the astronauts.
According to Turing's article "Mind", we see that computers are "sometimes described as having free will":
"An interesting variant on the idea of a digital computer is a 'digital computer with a random element'. These have instructions involving the throwing of a die or some equivalent electronic process; one such instruction might for instance be, 'Throw the die and put the resulting number into store 1000'. Sometimes such a machine is described as having free will (though I would not use this phrase myself). It is not normally possible to determine from observing a machine whether it has a random element, for a similar effect can be produced by such devices as making the choices depend on the digits of the decimal for ..." [445]
Could this have been the case with Hal? Is it a question of 'storage' or 'random element'? This film opened questions of possibilities, many possibilities:
- face-to-face (AT&T) calling...product placement
- Pan American airlines' space service...again product placement
- gender equality-women doctors onboard a spaceship - (except for the HAL 9000 series computer voice and 'all female' space flight attendants)
- shuttling non-astronauts into space, and
- special effects for film
- constructed competition between humans and machines/computers
Can machines get the better of humans while creating superhuman abilities? Could we as humans 'out machine' ourselves as a species?
Or...is it a question of fear of not controlling humans' own artificial intelligence: "it's just a glitch in the computer".
Blanca, some very nice observations about the film! I can tell that you watched carefully. We could certainly discuss 2001 along many planes, from gender and family dynamics to AI, but focusing on HAL fits best with our class concerns. I'm not sure that we could say an element of randomness was incorporated into HAL's design, but the name supposedly stands for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer, HAL was supposedly "taught" by its creator(s), given an emotion-inflected male voice, etc. And when Dave is shutting HAL down, notice that he is systematically removing HAL's memory... compare that to Turing's description of the three elements of a digital computer: store, executive unit, control.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alenda!
ReplyDeleteI believe the ultimate control is ours. In thinking a bit more on this Hal, and Turing's three elements of a digital computer: store, executive unit, control... the film's message is that we have the ability to deconstruct, in this case, Hal and maintain ultimate control on a computer.
ReplyDelete