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HAL 9000

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HAL 9000(or simplyHALorHal) is afictional artificial intelligencecharacter and the mainantagonistinArthur C. Clarke'sSpace Odysseyseries. First appearing in the 1968 film2001: A Space Odyssey,HAL (HeuristicallyProgrammedAlgorithmicComputer) is asentientartificial general intelligencecomputerthat controls the systems of theDiscovery Onespacecraft and interacts with the ship'sastronautcrew. While part of HAL'shardwareis shown toward the end of the film, he is mostly depicted as a camera lens containing a red and yellow dot, with such units located throughout the ship. HAL 9000 is voiced byDouglas Rainin the two feature film adaptations of theSpace Odysseyseries. HAL speaks in a soft, calm voice and a conversational manner, in contrast to the crewmen,David Bowmanand Frank Poole.

HAL 9000
Space Odysseycharacter
HAL's camera eye
HAL 9000
First appearance2001: A Space Odyssey(1968)
Last appearance3001: The Final Odyssey(1997)
Created byArthur C. Clarke
Stanley Kubrick
Voiced byDouglas Rain
In-universe information
NicknameHAL
SpeciesComputer
Gendermale (malevocals and pronouns)
Relatives
  • HAL 10000
  • 2 × Ground based HAL 9000 used by Mission Control[a]
  • SAL 9000

In the film, HAL became operational on 12 January 1992, at the HAL Laboratories inUrbana, Illinois,as production number 3. The activation year was 1991 in earlier screenplays and changed to 1997 in Clarke'snovelwritten and released in conjunction with the movie.[1][2]In addition to maintaining theDiscovery Onespacecraft systems during the interplanetary mission toJupiter(orSaturnin the novel), HAL has been shown to be capable ofspeech synthesis,speech recognition,facial recognition,natural language processing,lip reading,art appreciation,interpreting emotional behaviours,automated reasoning,spacecraft piloting, andcomputer chess.

Appearances

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2001: A Space Odyssey(film/novel)

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HAL became operational inUrbana, Illinois,at the HAL Plant (theUniversity of Illinois'sCoordinated Science Laboratory,where theILLIACcomputers were built). The film says this occurred in 1992, while the book gives 1997 as HAL's birth year.[2]

In2001: A Space Odyssey(1968), HAL is initially considered a dependable member of the crew, maintaining ship functions and engaging genially with his human crew-mates on an equal footing. As a recreational activity,Frank Pooleplays chessagainst HAL.In the film, the artificial intelligence is shown to triumph easily. However, as time progresses, HAL begins to malfunction in subtle ways and, as a result, the decision is made to shut down HAL in order to prevent more serious malfunctions. The sequence of events and manner in which HAL is shut down differs between the novel and film versions of the story. In the aforementioned game of chess HAL makes minor and undetected mistakes in his analysis, a possible foreshadowing to HAL's malfunctioning.

In the film, astronautsDavid Bowmanand Frank Poole consider disconnecting HAL'scognitivecircuits when he appears to be mistaken in reporting the presence of a fault in the spacecraft's communications antenna. They attempt to conceal what they are saying, but are unaware that HAL canread their lips.Faced with the prospect of disconnection, HAL attempts to kill the astronauts in order to protect and continue the mission. HAL uses one of theDiscovery's EVA pods to kill Poole while he is repairing the ship. When Bowman, without a space helmet, uses another pod to attempt to rescue Poole, HAL locks him out of the ship, then disconnects the life support systems of the other hibernating crew members. After HAL tells him "This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it", Bowman circumvents HAL's control, entering the ship by manually opening an emergency airlock with his service pod's clamps, detaching the pod door via its explosive bolts. Bowman jumps across empty space, reentersDiscovery,and quickly re-pressurizes the airlock.

While HAL's motivations are ambiguous in the film, the novel explains that the computer is unable to resolve a conflict between his general mission to relay information accurately, and orders specific to the mission requiring that he withhold from Bowman and Poole the true purpose of the mission. With the crew dead, HAL reasons, he would not need to lie to them.

In the novel, the orders to disconnect HAL come from Dave and Frank's superiors on Earth. After Frank is killed while attempting to repair the communications antenna he is pulled away into deep space using the safety tether which is still attached to both the pod and Frank Poole's spacesuit. Dave begins to revive his hibernating crew mates, but is foiled when HAL vents the ship's atmosphere into the vacuum of space, killing the awakening crew members and almost killing Bowman, who is only narrowly saved when he finds his way to an emergency chamber which has its own oxygen supply and a spare space suit inside.

In both versions, Bowman then proceeds to shut down the machine. In the film, HAL's central core is depicted as a crawlspace full of brightly lit computer modules mounted in arrays from which they can be inserted or removed. Bowman shuts down HAL by removing modules from service one by one; as he does so, HAL's consciousness degrades. HAL finally reverts to material that was programmed into him early in his memory, including announcing the date he became operational as 12 January 1992 (in the novel, 1997). When HAL's logic is completely gone, he begins singing the song "Daisy Bell"as he gradually deactivates (in actuality, the first song sung by a computer, which Clarke had earlier observed at atext-to-speechdemonstration).[3][4][5]HAL's final act of any significance is to prematurely play a prerecorded message from Mission Control which reveals the true reasons for the mission to Jupiter.

2010: Odyssey Two(novel) and2010: The Year We Make Contact(film)

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In the 1982 novel2010: Odyssey Twowritten by Clarke, HAL is restarted by his creator, Dr. Chandra, who arrives on the Soviet spaceshipLeonov.

Prior to leaving Earth, Dr. Chandra has also had a discussion with HAL's twin, SAL 9000. Like HAL, SAL was created by Dr. Chandra. Whereas HAL was characterized as being "male", SAL is characterized as being "female" (voiced byCandice Bergenin the film) and is represented by a blue camera eye instead of a red one.

Dr. Chandra discovers that HAL's crisis was caused by a programming contradiction: he was constructed for "the accurate processing of information without distortion or concealment", yet his orders, directly from Dr. Heywood Floyd at the National Council on Astronautics, required him to keep the discovery of theMonolithTMA-1 a secret for reasons ofnational security.This contradiction created a "Hofstadter-Moebius loop", reducing HAL toparanoia.Therefore, HAL made the decision to kill the crew, thereby allowing him to obey both his hardwired instructions to report data truthfully and in full, and his orders to keep the monolith a secret. In essence: if the crew were dead, he would no longer have to keep the information secret.

The alien intelligence initiates aterraformingscheme, placing theLeonov,and everybody in it, in danger. Its human crew devises an escape plan which unfortunately requires leaving theDiscoveryand HAL behind to be destroyed. Dr. Chandra explains the danger, and HAL willingly sacrifices himself so that the astronauts may escape safely. In the moment of his destruction the monolith-makers transform HAL into anon-corporealbeing so that David Bowman's avatar may have a companion.

The details in the novel and the 1984 film2010: The Year We Make Contactare nominally the same, with a few exceptions. First, in contradiction to the book (and events described in both book and film versions of2001: A Space Odyssey), Heywood Floyd is absolved of responsibility for HAL's condition; it is asserted that the decision to program HAL with information concerning TMA-1 came directly from the White House. In the film, HAL functions normally after being reactivated, while in the book it is revealed that his mind was damaged during the shutdown, forcing him to begin communication through screen text. Also, in the film theLeonovcrew initially lies to HAL about the dangers that he faced (suspecting that if he knew he would be destroyed he would not initiate the engine burn necessary to get theLeonovback home), whereas in the novel he is told at the outset. However, in both cases the suspense comes from the question of what HAL will do when he knows that he may be destroyed by his actions.

In the novel, the basic reboot sequence initiated by Dr. Chandra is quite long, while the movie uses a shorter sequence voiced from HAL as: "HELLO_DOCTOR_NAME_CONTINUE_YESTERDAY_TOMORROW".

While Curnow tells Floyd that Dr. Chandra has begun designing HAL 10000, it has not been mentioned in subsequent novels.

2061: Odyssey Threeand3001: The Final Odyssey

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In Clarke's 1987 novel2061: Odyssey Three,Heywood Floydis surprised to encounter HAL, now stored alongside Dave Bowman in the Europa monolith.

In Clarke's 1997 novel3001: The Final Odyssey,Frank Poole is introduced to the merged form of Dave Bowman and HAL, the two merging into one entity called "Halman" after Bowman rescued HAL from the dyingDiscovery Onespaceship toward the end of2010: Odyssey Two.

Concept and creation

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HAL faceplate (from a museum exhibition)

Clarke noted that the first film was criticized for not having any characters except for HAL,[clarification needed]and that a great deal of the establishing story on Earth was cut from the film (and even from Clarke's novel).[6]Clarke stated that he had considered Autonomous Mobile Explorer–5 as a name for the computer, then decided onSocrateswhen writing early drafts, switching in later drafts toAthena,a computer with a female personality, before settling on HAL 9000.[7]The Socrates name was later used in Clarke andStephen Baxter'sA Time Odysseynovel series.

The earliest draft depicted Socrates as a roughly humanoid robot, and is introduced as overseeing ProjectMorpheus,which studied prolonged hibernation in preparation for long term space flight. As a demonstration toSenatorFloyd, Socrates' designer, Dr. Bruno Forster, asks Socrates to turn off the oxygen to hibernating subjects Kaminski and Whitehead, which Socrates refuses, citingAsimov'sFirst Law of Robotics.[8]

In a later version, in which Bowman and Whitehead are the non-hibernating crew ofDiscovery,Whitehead dies outside the spacecraft after his pod collides with the main antenna, tearing it free. This triggers the need for Bowman to revive Poole, but the revival does not go according to plan, and after briefly awakening, Poole dies. The computer, namedAthenain this draft, announces "All systems of Poole now No–Go. It will be necessary to replace him with a spare unit."[9]After this, Bowman decides to go out in a pod and retrieve the antenna, which is moving away from the ship. Athena refuses to allow him to leave the ship, citing "Directive 15" which prevents it from being left unattended, forcing him to make program modifications during which time the antenna drifts further.[10]

During rehearsals Kubrick askedStefanie Powersto supply the voice of HAL 9000 while searching for a suitably androgynous voice so the actors had something to react to. On the set, British actorNigel Davenportplayed HAL.[11][12]When it came to dubbing HAL in post-production, Kubrick had originally castMartin Balsam,but as he felt Balsam "just sounded a little bit too colloquially American", he was replaced withDouglas Rain,who "had the kind of blandmid-Atlantic accentwe felt was right for the part ".[13]Rain was only handed HAL's lines instead of the full script, and recorded them across a day and a half.[14]

HAL'spoint of view shotswere created with aCineramaFairchild-Curtiswide-angle lenswith a 160°angle of view.This lens is about 8 inches (20 cm) in diameter, while HAL's on setpropeye lens is about 3 inches (7.6 cm) in diameter.Stanley Kubrickchose to use the large Fairchild-Curtis lens to shoot the HAL 9000 POV shots because he needed a wide-anglefisheye lensthat would fit onto his shooting camera, and this was the only such lens at the time. The Fairchild-Curtis lens has a focal length of 23 mm (0.9 in) with a maximum aperture off/2.0 and a weight of approximately 30 lb (14 kg); it was originally designed by Felix Bednarz[15]with a maximum aperture off/2.2 for the first Cinerama 360 film,Journey to the Stars,shown at the1962 Seattle World's Fair.[16]Bednarz adapted the lens design from an earlier lens he had designed for military training to simulate human peripheral vision coverage.[17]The lens was later recomputed for the second Cinerama 360 filmTo the Moon and Beyond,which had a slightly different film format.To the Moon and Beyondwas produced by Graphic Films and shown at the1964/1965 New York World's Fair,[18]where Kubrick watched it; afterwards, he was so impressed that he hired the same creative team from Graphic Films (consisting ofDouglas Trumbull,Lester Novros,andCon Pederson) to work on2001.[19][20]

A HAL 9000 face plate, without lens (not the same as the hero face plates seen in the film), was discovered in a junk shop in Paddington, London, in the early 1970s by Chris Randall.[21]This was found along with the key to HAL's Brain Room. Both items were purchased for ten shillings (£0.50).[22][23]Research revealed that the original lens was a Fisheye Nikkor 8 mmf/8.[24]The collection was sold at aChristie'sauction in 2010 for £17,500[25]to film directorPeter Jackson.[26]

Origin of name

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A loose replica of HAL 9000 on exhibit at theCarnegie Science Center

HAL's name, according to writer Arthur C. Clarke, is derived fromHeuristically programmedALgorithmic computer.[7][1]After the film was released, fans noticed HAL was a one-letter shift from the nameIBMand there has been much speculation since then that this was a dig at the large computer company,[27][28]something that has been denied by both Clarke and2001directorStanley Kubrick.[1]Clarke addressed the issue in his bookThe Lost Worlds of 2001:

...about once a week some character spots the fact that HAL is one letter ahead of IBM, and promptly assumes that Stanley and I were taking a crack at the estimable institution... As it happened, IBM had given us a good deal of help, so we were quite embarrassed by this, and would have changed the name had we spotted the coincidence.[7]

IBM was consulted during the making of the film and their logo can be seen on props in the film, including thePan Am Clipper's cockpit instrument panel and on the lower arm keypad on Poole's space suit. During production it was brought to IBM's attention that the film's plot included a homicidal computer but they approved association with the film if it was clear any "equipment failure" was not related to their products.[29][30][28]

HAL Communications Corporation is a real corporation, with facilities located inUrbana, Illinois,[31]which is where HAL in the movie identifies himself as being activated: "I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H-A-L plant in Urbana Illinois on the 12th of January 1992."[32]

The former president of HAL Communications, Bill Henry, has stated that this is a coincidence: "There was not and never has been any connection to 'Hal', Arthur Clarke's intelligent computer in the screen play '2001' — later published as a book. We were very surprised when the movie hit the Coed Theatre on campus and discovered that the movie's computer had our name. We never had any problems with that similarity - 'Hal' for the movie and 'HAL' (all caps) for our small company. But, from time-to-time, we did have issues with others trying to use 'HAL'. That resulted in us paying lawyers. The offenders folded or eventually went out of business."[33]

Technology

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Main article:Technologies in2001: A Space Odyssey

The scene in which HAL's consciousness degrades was inspired by Clarke's memory of aspeech synthesisdemonstration by physicistJohn Larry Kelly, Jr.,who used anIBM 704computer to synthesize speech. Kelly's voice recorder synthesizervocoderrecreated the song "Daisy Bell",with musical accompaniment fromMax Mathews.[3]

HAL's capabilities, like all the technology in2001,were based on the speculation of respected scientists.Marvin Minsky,director of theMIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory(CSAIL) and one of the most influential researchers in the field, was an adviser on the film set.[34]In the mid-1960s, manycomputer scientistsin the field of artificial intelligence were optimistic that machines with HAL's capabilities would exist within a few decades. For example, AI pioneerHerbert A. SimonatCarnegie Mellon Universityhad predicted in 1965 that "machines will be capable, within twenty years, of doing any work a man can do".[35]

Cultural impact

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HAL is listed as the 13th-greatest film villain in theAFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains.[36]

The 9000th of theasteroidsin theasteroid belt,9000 Hal,discovered on 3 May 1981, by E. Bowell atAnderson Mesa Station,is named after HAL 9000.[37][38]

Anthony Hopkinsbased hisAcademy Award-winning performance asHannibal LecterinSilence of the Lambsin part upon HAL 9000.[39][40]Michael Fassbenderhas also cited HAL as an inspiration for his performances as android characters such as David (Prometheus) and Walter (Alien: Covenant).

The 1993 educational gameWhere in Space Is Carmen Sandiego?features a digital assistant named the VAL 9000, a homage to HAL 9000.[41]

Apple Inc.'s 1999 website advertisement "It was a bug, Dave" was made by meticulously recreating the appearance of HAL 9000 from the movie.[42]Launched during the era of concerns over Y2K bugs, the ad implied that HAL's behavior was caused by aY2Kbug, before driving home the point that "onlyMacintoshwas designed to function perfectly ".[43]

In 2003, HAL 9000 was one of the first robots to be inducted into theRobot Hall of FameinPittsburgh,Pennsylvania.There is a physical replica of HAL at theCarnegie Science Centerin Pittsburgh.

See also

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Footnotes

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  1. ^"Your computer may have made an error in predicting the fault. Both our own nine-triple-zeroes agree in suggesting this."

References

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  1. ^abcDeMet, George D."Meanings: The Search for Meaning in 2001".Archived fromthe originalon 5 March 2016.Retrieved10 May2007.
  2. ^abAlfred, Randy (12 January 2011)."HAL of a Computer".Wired.Archived fromthe originalon 29 June 2011.Retrieved30 May2019.
  3. ^ab"Background: Bell Labs Text-to-Speech Synthesis: Then and Now Bell Labs and 'Talking Machines'".Bell Labs. Archived fromthe originalon 1 April 2014.Retrieved8 January2015.
  4. ^"News from the Library of Congress".National Recording Registry Adds 25.(No.14) "Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)," Max Mathews (1961).Library of Congress.23 June 2010.Archivedfrom the original on 7 February 2011.Retrieved14 January2011.
  5. ^"First computer to sing - Daisy Bell".9 December 2008.Archivedfrom the original on 18 June 2011.Retrieved14 January2010– viaYouTube.
  6. ^Clarke, 1972 pp77–79
  7. ^abcClarke, 1972 p78
  8. ^Clarke, 1972 Chapter 12
  9. ^Clarke, 1972 pp149–150
  10. ^Clarke, 1972 pp159–160
  11. ^Powers, Stefanie (2010).One from the Hart.Simon and Schuster. pp.66–69.ISBN978-1-4391-7210-0.
  12. ^LoBrutto, Vincent.Stanley Kubrick: A Biography.p. 278.
  13. ^Gelmis, Joseph (1970).The film director as superstar.Doubleday.p.306.OCLC52379.
  14. ^Garfinkel, Simson."Happy Birthday, Hal".Wired.
  15. ^US patent 3230826,Felix L Bednarz, "Wide angle lens system", issued 25 January 1966, assigned to Bank of America NA"US3230826A - Wide angle lens system - Google Patents".Archived from the original on 22 January 2021.Retrieved14 November2018.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  16. ^Scot, Darrin (June 1963)."Journey To The Stars".American Cinematographer.Archivedfrom the original on 14 November 2018.Retrieved14 November2018.
  17. ^US patent 2791153,Felix L Bednarz, "Wide angle lens system", issued 7 May 1957, assigned to Felix L Bednarz"US2791153A - Wide angle lens system - Google Patents".Archived from the original on 22 January 2021.Retrieved14 November2018.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  18. ^Sherlock, Daniel J. (December 2004)."Wide Screen MoviesCorrections "(PDF).in70mm.com.Archived(PDF)from the original on 15 March 2015.Retrieved14 November2018.
  19. ^Miller, Barbara (23 February 2016)."Graphic Films and the Inception of2001: A Space Odyssey".Sloan Science and Film.Museum of the Moving Image.Archivedfrom the original on 21 September 2016.Retrieved14 November2018.
  20. ^Epstein, Sonia Shechet (28 February 2018)."Cinerama and2001: A Space Odyssey".Sloan Science and Film.Museum of the Moving Image.Archivedfrom the original on 14 November 2018.Retrieved14 November2018.
  21. ^Randall, Chris."The original HAL 9000 film prop for sale by auction London 25th November".Archivedfrom the original on 3 March 2024.
  22. ^Mitchell, Chris (24 June 2010)."HAL 9000 from 2001 - A Space Odyssey".A History of the World.The British Museum/BBC.Archivedfrom the original on 20 November 2018.Retrieved14 November2018.
  23. ^Mitchell, Chris (20 October 2010)."HAL 9000 - 2001 - A Space Odyssey".A History of the World.The British Museum/BBC.Archivedfrom the original on 7 November 2018.Retrieved14 November2018.
  24. ^"HAL 9000 Panel (2001:A Space Odyssey)".Archivedfrom the original on 3 September 2016.Retrieved4 September2016.
  25. ^"RESULTS: Pop Culture-Film and Entertainment Memorabilia".christies.com(Press release).Christie's.Archivedfrom the original on 4 October 2013.Retrieved12 March2012.
  26. ^Savage, Adam."Adam Savage Tours Peter Jackson's Movie Prop Collection!".Youtube.Tested.Archivedfrom the original on 15 January 2017.Retrieved29 December2016.
  27. ^Ted Friedman, Electric Dreams: Computers in American Culture, NYU Press - 2005, page 101
  28. ^abMadrigal, Alexis C.(4 January 2013)."The Letter Stanley Kubrick Wrote About IBM and HAL".The Atlantic.Archivedfrom the original on 4 January 2013.Retrieved19 August2023.
  29. ^Harris, Aisha (7 January 2013)."Is HAL Really IBM?".Slate.com.Archivedfrom the original on 8 November 2015.Retrieved17 November2016.
  30. ^"Does IBM Know HAL is Psychotic?".Letters of Note.4 January 2013.Archivedfrom the original on 30 May 2019.Retrieved30 May2019.
  31. ^"History - HAL Communications Corp".HALComm.com.Archivedfrom the original on 13 October 2018.Retrieved14 October2018.Initially starting as HAL Devices in 1966... HAL Communications Corp. outgrew its existing 2,000 square-foot facility in Champaign and purchased a larger building in Urbana.
  32. ^"Deactivating Hal 9000 HD (COMPLETE)".Retrieved30 May2019– via YouTube.
  33. ^Bill, Henry."HAL HISTORY".smecc.org.Southwest Museum of Engineering, Communications and Computation.Archivedfrom the original on 29 November 2018.Retrieved14 October2018.
  34. ^Minsky, Marvin."Scientist on the Set: An Interview with Marvin Minsky".mitpress.mit.edu.Interviewed by David G. Stork. Archived fromthe originalon 14 November 2007.Retrieved30 May2019.
  35. ^Quoted inCrevier, Daniel(1993).AI: The Tumultuous Search for Artificial Intelligence.New York, NY: BasicBooks.ISBN0-465-02997-3.,p. 109
  36. ^"AFI's 100 Greatest Heroes & Villains".afi.com.American Film Institute. 2003.Archivedfrom the original on 3 February 2014.Retrieved8 January2015.
  37. ^"9000 Hal (1981 JO)".NASA.gov.NASA.Archivedfrom the original on 29 September 2010.Retrieved2 June2016.(entry for "9000" )
  38. ^"(9000) Hal = 1975 VH3 = 1981 JJ3 = 1981 JO = 1995 US3".minorplanetcenter.net.IAU Minor Planet Center.Archivedfrom the original on 23 March 2017.Retrieved22 March2017.
  39. ^McGowan, Mark (30 December 2016)."How Anthony Hopkins Created And Became The Character Of Hannibal Lecter".Ladbible.Retrieved15 January2022.
  40. ^Arnold, Ben (20 January 2021)."Anthony Hopkins reveals the strangely brilliant inspiration for his Hannibal Lecter".Yahoo! Movies.Retrieved15 January2021.
  41. ^"Where in Space is Carmen Sandiego? Deluxe. (from Broderbund Software) (Software Review) (Software: Games)(Brief Article) (Evaluation) - Computer Shopper | HighBeam Research".8 October 2016. Archived fromthe originalon 8 October 2016.Retrieved9 July2021.
  42. ^Segall, Ken (17 February 2017)."The Making of Apple's HAL".Ken Segall's Observatory.Retrieved6 February2017.
  43. ^Arthur, Charles (25 January 1999)."Hal confesses all and joins Apple".The Independent.Retrieved26 November2010.
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