Exploring Human and Artificial Intelligence in Space

I was charmed by this film the first time I saw it, and every time since. It was the synthesis of the journey of mankind into the future and an argument for space as mankind’s ultimate destination. It was the best science fiction film I had ever seen, as it presented several different possibilities and scenarios of what could happen as well as what might happen to man in his quest to conquer space. The introduction of the computer as an artificial intelligence was an added plus. The idea of a machine making the same mistakes as any human being proved out in its own statement: that any glitches in its operating parameters had to be due to human error. Given that machines are incapable of emotions like guile, hatred, fear and sorrow, HAL was nearly as emotional as any organic being. This in itself was a glorious foil for man’s ambitions to discover the wonders of deep space.

The novel 2001: A Space Odyssey was written during the years 1964-1968 and was published in July 1968 shortly after release of the movie.

As I have described in The Lost Worlds of 2001, both projects proceeded simultaneously, with feedback in each direction. Thus I often had the strange experience of revising the manuscript after viewing rushes based upon an earlier version of the story - a stimulating but rather expensive way of writing a novel. As a result, there is a much closer parallel between book and movie than is usually the case, but there is also major differences. In the novel, the destination of the spaceship Discovery was Iapetus (or Japetus), most enigmatic of Saturn's many moons. The Saturnian system was reached via Jupiter: Discovery made a close approach to the giant planet, using its enormous gravitational field to produce a "slingshot" effect and to accelerate it along the second lap of its journey. Exactly the same maneuver was used by the Voyager space-probes in 1979, when they made the first detailed reconnaissance of the outer

giants.
In the movie, however, Stanley Kubrick wisely avoided confusion by setting the third confrontation between Man and Monolith among the moons of Jupiter. Saturn was dropped from the script entirely, though Douglas Trumbull later used the expertise he had acquired filming the ringed planet in his own production, Silent Running.
No one could have imagined, back in the mid-sixties, that the exploration of the moons of Jupiter lay not in the next century but only fifteen years ahead. Nor had anyone dreamed of the wonders that would be found there - although we can be quite certain that the discoveries of the twin Voyagers will one day be surpassed by even more unexpected finds. When 2001 was written, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto were mere pinpoints of light in even the most powerful telescope; now they are worlds, each unique, and one of them - Io - the most volcanically active body in the Solar System.
Yet all things considered, both movie and book stand up quite well in the light of these discoveries. There are no major changes I would wish to make to the text, and it is fascinating to compare the Jupiter sequences in the film with the actual movies from the Voyager cameras. It must also be remembered that 2001 was written in an age that now lies beyond one of the Great Divides in human history; we are sundered from it forever by the moment when Neil Armstrong set foot upon the Moon. July 20, 1969, was still half a decade in the future when Stanley Kubrick and Arthur Clarke started thinking about the "proverbial good science fiction movie" (his phrase). Now history and fiction have become inextricably intertwined.
The Apollo astronauts had already seen the film when they left for the Moon. The crew of Apollo 8, who at Christmas 1968 became the first men ever to set eyes upon the lunar Farside, told me that they had been tempted to radio back the discovery of a large, black monolith: alas, discretion prevailed.