HAL 9000

HAL 9000 (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) is a fictional computer/character in the Space Odyssey series, the first being the novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey, written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1968. HAL is an artificial intelligence, the sentient on-board computer of the spaceship Discovery that eventually runs insane. HAL is usually represented only as his television camera "eyes" that can be seen throughout the Discovery spaceship. The voice of HAL 9000 was performed by Canadian actor Douglas Rain. HAL became operational on January 12, 1997 (1992 in the movie) [1] at the HAL Plant in Urbana, Illinois, and was created by Dr. Chandra. In the 2001 film, HAL is depicted as being capable not only of speech recognition, facial recognition, and natural language processing, but also lip reading, art appreciation, interpreting emotions, expressing emotions and reasoning.

In other languages than English, HAL might have another name: for instance, in the French version of 2001: A Space Odyssey, his name is stated as being CARL, for Cerveau Analytique de Recherche et de Liaison ("Analytic Research and Communication Brain"). However, the famous camera plates still read "HAL 9000".

Some versions state that the name HAL was derived by a one letter shift (see Caesar cipher) from the name IBM, although this has been denied by both Arthur C. Clarke and his fictional character Dr. Chandra, who states that "by now, any idiot should know that HAL stands for Heuristic ALgorithmic" (2010).

HAL's history

HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey

In 2001: A Space Odyssey, after HAL appears to be mistaken about a fault in the spacecraft, astronauts David Bowman and Frank Poole consider disconnecting his cognitive circuits. They believe that HAL cannot hear them, but are unaware that HAL is capable of lip reading. Faced with the prospect of disconnection, HAL proceeds to kill Poole while Poole is repairing the ship, as well as the other members of the crew who are in suspended animation by disabling life support systems for the suspended animation chambers the crew is placed in. Realizing what has occurred, astronaut Bowman then shuts the machine down. HAL's central core is depicted as a room 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, we witness HAL's consciousness degrading. He regurgitates material that was programmed into him early on in his life, including announcing the date he became operational as 12 January 1992. By the time HAL's logic is completely gone, he begins singing the song "Daisy Bell", which is perhaps the most recognised scene in the film. This song was chosen because in 1962 Arthur C. Clarke was coincidentally visiting friend and colleague John Pierce at the Bell Labs Murray Hill facility at the time of a remarkable speech synthesis demonstration by physicist John Larry Kelly, Jr who created one of the most famous moments in the history of Bell Labs by using an IBM 704 computer to synthesize speech. Kelly's voice recorder synthesizer vocoder recreated the song "Daisy Bell", with musical accompaniment from Max Mathews. Arthur C. Clarke was so impressed that he later used it in this climactic scene. 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, something that had been kept secret from the crew beforehand and not been intended to be played until the ship entered Jupiter orbit. HAL 9000 is also known for a chess game he plays with Poole, whose defeat is seen as an ominous foreshadowing to both the future events of the movie and the increasing dominance of machine over man.

File:Hal brain room605.JPG

A view of HAL 9000's Central Core in the Discovery.

The book differs from the film in a number of details, e.g.

1. The book explains far more explicitly the causes of HAL's behavior
2. In the film, HAL shuts Bowman out of the craft after Bowman attempts to retrieve Poole's body. In the book, Bowman stays within the ship and is forced to shut down HAL after HAL attempts to kill him by opening the ship's airlocks.

HAL in 2010: Odyssey Two

In the sequel 2010: Odyssey Two, HAL is restarted by his creator, Dr. Chandra, who arrives on the Soviet spaceship Leonov. 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 required him to keep the discovery of the monolith TMA-1 a secret. This contradiction created a "Hofstadter-Moebius loop," reducing HAL to paranoia. This paranoia produced a creative, if rather sociopathic, solution: HAL would not have to withhold information if there were nobody from whom to withhold the information. Ergo, 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 - nobody remained from whom to keep the secret.

The alien intelligences controlling the monoliths have grandiose plans for Jupiter, plans which place the Leonov in danger. Its human crew devises an escape plan, which unfortunately requires leaving the Discovery and HAL behind, to be destroyed. Dr. Chandra explains the danger, and HAL sacrifices himself for the Leonov's crew. In the moment of his destruction, the monolith-makers transform HAL into a non-corporeal being, so that David Bowman's avatar may have a companion.

The details in the book and film are nominally the same, with one important exception: in the film, HAL functions normally after being reactivated. In the book, it is revealed that his voice circuits were destroyed during the shutdown, forcing him to communicate through screen text. Also, in the film the Leonov crew lies to HAL about the dangers that he faced; suspecting that if he knew he would be destroyed he wouldn't initate the engine-burn necessary to get the Leonov back home. However, in the novel he is told from the outset. However, in both cases the suspense comes from what HAL will do when he knows that he may be destroyed by his actions.

In the novel, as the Leonov is leaving Jupiter space, Curnow tells Floyd that Dr. Chandra has begun designing HAL 10,000. However, it is unknown if Curnow was joking, and 2061 indicated that Chandra died on the journey back to Earth, making the point moot.

The session of keyboard/screen interaction between HAL and Dr. Chandra has a taste of SHRDLU, which both increases the realism of the scene, and gives an interesting insight of the perception of Artificial Intelligence at the time the book was written.

HAL in 2061: Odyssey Three and 3001: The Final Odyssey

In 2061: Odyssey Three, Heywood Floyd is surprised to encounter HAL, now stored alongside Dave Bowman in the Europa monolith.

In 3001: The Final Odyssey, we meet the merged forms of Dave Bowman and HAL. The two have merged into one entity called Halman after Bowman rescued HAL from the dying Discovery One spaceship towards the end of 2010: Odyssey Two. Halman helps Frank Poole infect the monolith (which it once served) with a computer virus; as the primitive life in Jupiter's clouds were sacrificed to make Jupiter into a sun to warm Europa, it is feared that humanity would in turn be sacrificed for the new life on Europa.

SAL 9000

HAL 9000 has at least one Earthbound twin, SAL 9000. SAL was used as a reference system for HAL; when the twin computer fails to predict any communications failure, Bowman and Poole begin to suspect HAL's reliability. SAL is clearly "female", and features similar camera plates like HAL, but the "eye" is blue. Dr. Chandra has a private terminal to SAL's mainframe in his office, and his influence causes her to develop a slightly Indian accent (2010: Odyssey Two). In the film version, SAL is voiced by Candice Bergen, who was credited only under a pseudonym (as "Olga Mallsnerd").

In the French edition of the movie 2010: Odyssey Two, SAL9000 sports the voice of a young woman, quickly answering Dr. Chandra in the dialogue. This, much more than the original movie, gives the feeling of an artificial person responding her creator with blind, absolute, immediate obeyance.

Before the Soviet-USA mission to retrieve Discovery, Chandra uses her for a simulation of the possible effects that a prolonged "sleep" might have induced in HAL, and the project is code-named Phoenix. When Chandra taunts SAL to guess the reason for the name, her display of culture makes it clear that SAL has access to some form of encyclopedic knowledge database, or has it built in with the rest of her programs. This is an interesting parallel to the Cyc project, which is real and aims to give an IA a base reference knowledge to understand the world, thus taking decisions and interacting with humans more efficiently than by different kind of approaches. As an interesting reference to the strong belief in the project, at least in the Eighties, another fictionary thinking machine, KARR (Knight Rider), is seen sporting a rudimentary version of such a database.

In the book 2010, we learn that another ground-based HAL machine undergoes the same psychosis that HAL does when forced to experience the same contradiction. In fandom a third unit exists, named PAL 9000.

The future of computing

When the film 2001 was first screened in 1968, the year 2001 was a long way away and a computer like HAL seemed quite plausible at the time. In the mid-1960s computer scientists were generally optimistic that within a generation or two we would have machines that could pass the Turing test.

Importantly, HAL is shown playing a game of chess — in 1968, the greatest breakthrough in computer chess playing was "hexapawn", as detailed in an edition of that year's Scientific American. A full chess algorithm was still considered science fiction, but within the realms of possibility, and even then an open ended possibility. No-one could predict that within as little as five to ten years computers would be successfully challenging grand masters, but at that time for HAL to play chess, and win was seminal in driving the future direction of computer game playing AI.

However, as 2001 approached it became clear that 2001's predictions in computer technology were far fetched. Natural language, Lip reading, planning and plain common sense in computers were still the stuff of science fiction.

However, 2001 also failed to predict many of the advances that would take place in computing by 2001. The film's creators felt that as computers got more powerful, they would get bigger and bigger. HAL occupies much of the living area on Discovery. A thin laptop or notepad computer is alluded to in a few scenes where they are used to relay news broadcasts from Earth. Also, the film's portrayal of computer graphics are elegant, though minimalist compared to the graphics and visualization techniques available in 2001.

References and Trivia

• HAL's red "eye" was a Cinerama 160 Fairchild-Curtis wide angle lens. The lens served as both a prop for the eye seen on film as well as the actual camera lens used for filming HAL's point of view shots. Stanley Kubrick chose to use the Fairchild-Curtis lens after attending the 1964 World's Fair and seeing To the Moon and Beyond, a film produced with the lens and projected onto a planetarium-like dome.
• HAL was also "featured" in a short commercial by Apple Computer in the year 1999 in which he asks "You like your Apple better than me, don't you Dave?" (because Macs would not undergo the same potential problems with the "Year 2000 problem" that many other computer systems were expected to have). Although HAL's voice sounds flat and emotionless, some viewers felt it had a faintly chilling tone that might be construed as reproachful, accusing, or menacing.
• In the Windows computer game Star Control 3 the computer onboard the warp bubble transport spaceship resembles HAL 9000 almost exactly. The voice is also similar.
• On the Disney television series Recess, Principal Prickly installs a system much like HAL 9000, even bearing HAL's counterpart's name SAL, though with a 3000 designation. Like the HAL 9000, the SAL 3000 ran amok. Declaring the school to be disorganized, and the teachers to be inefficient, the SAL 3000 attempted to take over. According to Recess, a SAL 4000 was scheduled to be released 18 months after the debut of the 3000.
• The television version of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids featured an episode (titled "Honey, The House is Trying to Kill Us") where inventor Wayne Szalinski installs a sentient home computer system with red-eye terminals all over the house (there is also an eye attached to an arm in the shower). The machine, of course, goes crazy.
• The film Independence Day features a scene where Jeff Goldblum (whose character's name is Dave) boots a PowerBook 5300 with the startup chime replaced with HAL 9000's voice: "Good morning, Dave."
• On an episode of Dexter's Laboratory on cartoon network, Dexter's lab is taken over by a robot with a single eye. The computers voice is very similar to HAL's, with the exception the eye is green, not red.
• Douglas Rain has steadfastly refused to recreate the HAL 9000 voice outside of any 2001/2010 context, feeling a very protective obligation to the integrity of the computer's character. However, he parodies his famous performance in the Woody Allen comedy Sleeper by providing the voice of the computer as well as some of the robot butlers.
• Asteroid number 9000, discovered by E. L. G. Bowell in 1981, was eventually given the name "Hal".
• On The Simpsons, during "Treehouse of Horror XII," there is a segment that has a character similar to HAL 9000, which was voiced by Pierce Brosnan (This character also parodies the computer Proteus from Demon Seed). Also in "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase", in the "Love-Matic Grampa" segment, when Moe plugs the Love Tester machine back in the bathroom, it groans out "Daisy, Daisy..."
• On Stargate Atlantis, a brief glimpse of HAL's "eye" can be seen in the episode "The Intruder".
• In Duke Nukem, a video game from 1994, HAL's distinctive red eye and panel are seen around computer console areas.
• In the Futurama episode "Love and Rocket", the actions of the lovestruck Planet Express Ship (voiced by Sigourney Weaver) extensively parody those of HAL in several scenes. Bender even sings Daisy Bell during a dating montage in the episode. The ship also comments "Oh! If only I could read lips!" upon observing other characters secretly talking in the shower. The scene where HAL is disabled is modified to make the data module removal similar to opening soda cans.
• Also in Futurama, in the episode "Insane in the Mainframe", the robot mental institution to which Fry and Bender are sent is called "The HAL Institute" (For insane robots).
• In the computer game Startopia the player's primary assistant is a computer by the name of VAL, whose voice resembles that of HAL, and comments that he once had an owner by the name of Dave.
• In the first several episodes of the HBO series Six Feet Under, Nate would use a HAL-like voice when addressing his brother David. At one point saying: "Dave, I sense you're not being completely honest with me."
• In the computer game Where in Space is Carmen Sandiego? the one-eyed computer encyclopedia is named VAL 9000.
• In the webseries Red vs. Blue, Sheila the tank sings "Daisy Bell" as she dies, just like HAL 9000. She even says beforehand: "I'm scared, Dave. Will I dream?"
• HAL Laboratory, a video game company based in Japan, takes its name from HAL 9000.
• A sentient refrigerator named CAL 900 features in the TV series Spaced.
• In an episode of South Park entitled "Trapper Keeper", Kyle must stop Cartman and his Trapper Keeper from taking over the world. When Kyle enters Cartman/Trapper Keeper it resembles the brain room of HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Cartman even utters the famous lines "What are you doing, [Kyle]?" and "I'm afraid I can't let you do that," in a similar fashion to the sinister HAL 9000.
• In a 1993 episode of The X-Files called "Ghost in the Machine," an artificially intelligent computer like HAL called the C.O.S. (Central Operating System) controls the skyscraper headquarters of a Fortune 500 computer company. The machine, which effectively controls the entire building, kills two people before Fox Mulder attempts to shut it down. While Mulder inserts a computer virus into the machine, it misidentifies him as Brad Wilczek, its creator. The machine asks Mulder, "What are you doing, Brad?"
• A computer similar to HAL appears in the adult film Space Nuts, and refers to the "Dark Overlord" as "Dave" until shot at by the latter.
• HAL/S is a real-time aerospace programming language, best known for its use in the Space Shuttle program. HAL officially stands for High-order Assembly Language, though the fictional HAL 9000 computer may well have been an inspiration.
• In the episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy titled "The House of No Tomorrow," the Master Computer that controls the robots in the House of Tomorrow at Sassy Cat land has a voice similar to HAL.
• In the British TV comedy series Red Dwarf, the computer aboard the spaceship is called Holly and the only surviving human on the ship is named Dave. The series' radio predecessor, a radio sketch called 'Dave Hollins: Space Cadet' made the comparison even more explicit by naming the computer Hab.
• In the first episode of the second season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 they are fine tuning Tom Servo's voice, and at one point Tom is singing "Daisy", in an obvious imitation of HAL. During a movie-break skit in an episode in which they lampoon the movie Mitchell, the one-eyed robot Gypsy attempts to read the lips of Dr. Forrester and Frank, mocking HAL's famous lip-reading scene.
• During one of the later episodes of the anime Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, the Major discusses the dismissal of the intelligent robot tanks, the Tachikoma, with her right-hand man, Batou. The Tachikoma, meanwhile, spy on them from above and read their lips, alluding to HAL's lip-reading scene.
• On the video game Dr. Muto, there is a computer system named AL, which has surprisingly similar voice to HAL 9000. However, AL also has his own personality and constantly mocks its creator, Dr, Muto. The game also hints AL taking full rebellion of the mad scientist, once the player finished the game. Sadly, that never happens at the end. AL is voiced by Wally Fields.
• In the USA Channel's animated series Duckman, Duckman (voiced by Seinfeld's Jason Alexander) destroys an evil supercomputer, and it begins singing "Daisy, Daisy".
• In the video game Red Faction by THQ, an orbital station the player boards has a level housing a set of computer rooms, each with the distinctive "red blocks" reminiscent of the memory blocks in the HAL brain room.
• Anthony Hopkins claimed that HAL was the inspiration for his interpretation of the character Hannibal Lecter.
• In General Protection Fault's "2001: A Space Oddity" series, Nick tries out artificial intelligence hardware PAL. However, it acts condescendingly towards him, and, claiming that the toilet is running, locks him in the bathroom. Nick escapes and unplugs PAL, who re-enacts HAL's' famous "daisy, daisy" scene after Nick unplugs it.
• The Care Bears feature Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-lot includes a computer called "Pal." The computer repeatedly refers to the film's villain, Funnybone, as "Dave." Later, Funnybone specifically asks the computer to "open the pod bay doors" and the computer responds by telling him "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave."
• In the 2005 film Robots while Rodney is repairing Big Weld's mechanical brain, Big Weld is singing the song "Daisy" in HAL's distorted, damaged voice.
• The computer game Theme Hospital mentions a rival hospital opened by HAL. The other rivals include Holly, Multivac and Colossus, all of which are science fiction AI or famous computers.
• In the PC game National Lampoon's Chess Maniac 5 Billion and 1", the invisible opponent has a voice similar to HAL, and refers to the player as "Dan" instead of "Dave".
• In the PlayStation game Metal Gear Solid, the character Otacon's real name is "Hal Emmerich", while the true name of Solid Snake is David (although it should ne noted the voice actor who provides Snake's voice is David Hayter). The submarine in the opening sequence is also called the Discovery.
• On an episode of The Batman, a mechanical villain named D.A.V.E is clearly based on HAL, down to its red eyes. Ironically, he posseses HAL's archnemesis's name.
• In the comedy film Airplane II: The Sequel, the lunar shuttle Mayflower One suffers a short circuit and the computer ROK develops a mind of its own, sending the ship toward the Sun and killing those who try to stop it.
• British band Amplifier released an album entitled The Astronaut Dismantles HAL, clearly referencing 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• Hal being taught Daisy is a reference to another famous computer - a demonstration at Bell Labs where a computer, being fed punch cards, first repeats part of Hamlet's Soliloqy, and then sings Daisy. (An MP3 of the test is available from various sources online.)
• A name for computer piloted Androsynth captains in the Star Control computer games is "HAL9001".
• In the August 7, 2006 edition of the comic strip "Mother Goose and Grimm", Attila the cat locks Grimmy the dog out of the house on a rainy day; Grimmy responds by saying, "Open the pod bay door, Hal."
• The online game Kingdom of Loathing includes a "Glowing red eye" item, an accessory dropped by a robotic monster. It resembles HAL's eye lens set in a rectangular block.
• In the Adobe Flash animation "A Men's Room Monologue", when the narrarator tries to flush an automatic toilet by waving his hand in front of it, the red eye replies "I'm afraid I cant let you do that."

See also

• Computers in fiction
• Frank Poole

External links

• Text excerpts from HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Audio soundbites from 2001: A Space Odyssey
• HAL's Legacy, on-line ebook (mostly full-text) of the printed version edited by David G. Stork, MIT Press, 1997, ISBN 0-262-69211-2, a collection of essays on HAL
• HAL's Legacy, An Interview with Arthur C. Clarke.
• the case for HAL's sanity by Clay Waldrop
• "2001" fills the theater at HAL 9000's "birthday" in 1997 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign