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Happy Birthday, HAL!

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the daisy-daisy dept.

GeekDates writes "January 12 is the birthday of HAL-9000, the computer from '2001: A Space Odyssey.' According to the book, he was activated on this day in 1997." Three years old? He must be ready for an upgrade.

43 of 240 comments (clear)

  1. Listen to hal by xtype · · Score: 2

    http://members.spree.com/sip/wavrider/Hal/hal.html

  2. Excellent... by Lester · · Score: 2

    Happy Birthday HAL... Upgrade Schmupgrade, he only needs a better video card so he can run Q3A.

    --
    'Sometimes I think about killing myself, no, wait, that's you.' -- Jack Handy
  3. coincidence? i think not. by digitalunity · · Score: 2

    Maybe it's my paranoid hacker mind, but I find it rather odd that HAL's birthday is so near to IBM's decision to support linux. I think 2001 was really a documentary. No, really, it was. Follow me on this...

    HAL - next character in alphabet for each letter is:
    IBM

    Isn't it obvious. IBM was celebrating HAL's birthday by supporting Linux, and we all know HAL 9000's boot Linux. I think the movie was made in the future and sent into the past.


    and I even took my medication this morning :) hehe
    mike
    thehackernextdoor

    --
    You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
    1. Re:coincidence? i think not. by cabbey · · Score: 2

      there is a great database at IBM that is used for looking up all the TLAs we use... one of my most often requested additions is that HAL stands for Holerith's Arithmatical Legacy (a reference to IBM). another is that IBM stands for Security Through Acronyms... few people get that one though....

  4. Same place as Netscape by wharfrat · · Score: 2

    He was made at the same place as Netscape too.
    U of I in Champaign-Urbana.
    I think HAL was an acronymn for Holistic Algarithmic Learning....
    Not just the letters before IBM.

    1. Re:Same place as Netscape by UnanimousCoward · · Score: 2

      HAL stands for Heuristic ALgorithmic...

      --
      Twelve-and-three-quarter inches. Unyielding. This wand belonged to Bellatrix Lestrange.
    2. Re:Same place as Netscape by nebular · · Score: 2

      since I have what borders on obsession with this movie I have read the entire series of books and many of the other books associated with the movie. From this I learned that yes HAL is a play on IBM, since IBM did all the pre-production scientific work (since 2001 was the most scientifically resarched movie of all time) on how one would create an AI computer, but then did not want to continue the work or be credited because HAL eventually kills all those people, kubrick was not happy with this and so tried to get the one up by going one letter before. Arthur C. Clark, whose short story the sentinel(?) was the inspiration and was the co-creator of this movie, addressed this in the novel (written before the movie but not published because kubrick was slow to aprove). It seems he did not agree with Kubrick and so put the definition of the acronym in the book as Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer. As you can see since this is not a very good acronym showing that the name HAL was not originally based onthose words. In fact his original name was supposed to be Socrates (Taken from Lost Worlds of 2001, 1971)

  5. Go U of I by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    Hal was born at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. (He would probably be born at the Beckman Institute on campus, but Clarke can be forgiven for not mentioning this, as the Beckman Institute had yet to be built at the time 2001 was written.)

    Go Illini!

  6. 1984, 2001 etc... by RuntimeError · · Score: 3
    I find that whenever a writer puts a date on his prediction, and makes it the title, they almost never come true.

    Classic examples are 1984, 2001, then there was the TV series Space 1999.

    Anyway, Arthur C. Clarke was one of the pioneers in the wired world, and what he predicted was not outside the limits of human achievement. The reason, that a manned mission is not heading for Jupiter is that we have wasted too much money developing wars and fighting wars, money which would have been better spent investigating the space. If we don't make that leap soon, humans might forever be doomed to exploring only cyberspace. ( I seriously don't mind that but, then when the population reaches the point that where earth cannot anylonger sustain it, we are going to have a problem)

    As for HAL, the topic of discussion, too bad you are not going to get to Jupiter anytime soon. Have a nice birthday mate !

    1. Re:1984, 2001 etc... by Telcontar · · Score: 2

      Are you sure Orwell was totally wrong with the date? If you go to the UK, particularly to Glasgow, there are CCTV cameras all over the city... Big Brother is truly watching you there, you have no privacy whatsoever on the streets.

      It was really strange when I came there first, but apparently nobody bothered, and indeed you get used to it sooner than you would admit :-(

    2. Re:1984, 2001 etc... by SimonK · · Score: 2

      CCTV cameras in the street are a whole different matter to the "telescreen" devices and hidden cameras in 1984 that could watch you wherever you went. Its odd that cameras in the street upset people but cameras in stores (which are universal in the US as well as the UK) do not.

      There's also the question of the use which is made of the technology. Most street cameras are very obvious because their purpose is to prevent crime. The observation systems in 1984 were there to produce a general atnosphere of fear.

    3. Re:1984, 2001 etc... by Abigail-II · · Score: 3
      The reason, that a manned mission is not heading for Jupiter is that we have wasted too much money developing wars and fighting wars, money which would have been better spent investigating the space. If we don't make that leap soon, humans might forever be doomed to exploring only cyberspace.

      That's of course silly. Humans have left this planet for the first time only 40 years ago. Humans have lived without space travel for tens of thousands of years - millions of years, depending on what you define as a human. Jupiter won't take a right turn and head for another star if mankind was the wait an extra 200 or 4000 years.

      when the population reaches the point that where earth cannot anylonger sustain it, we are going to have a problem

      Going to space will never solve the problem of overpopulation, just like the discovery of the America's, Australia and the exploration of Africa didn't reduce the population of Europe. People will be born at a faster rate than you can shoot them of the planet.

      -- Abigail

    4. Re:1984, 2001 etc... by Ed+Avis · · Score: 2

      You have no privacy on the streets anyway. It's a public place.

      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
    5. Re:1984, 2001 etc... by nebular · · Score: 2

      Unfortunatly 1984 cannot amongst the books that have incorrect dates since 1984 wasn't meant as a prediction. The novel 1984 was actually a social commentary on the present time (Post-war Europe) and was originally going to be titled 1948 (the year Orwell wrote the book) but the publisher had him change it because it was felt that 1948 would not go over well with the story

    6. Re:1984, 2001 etc... by 0xdeadbeef · · Score: 3

      A big push to go to space, like the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo missions, has the same effect on the economy as war. Both endeavors dump a great deal of money into research, much more so than the private sector would ever do on its own in the same amount of time. And both endeavors focus large segments of the economy on specific goals.

      The difference is it much easier to justify a war to the taxpayers than space exploration. And without the technology already developed for the military, and the propoganda coup of beating the Russians, Apollo would have never happened.

    7. Re:1984, 2001 etc... by Rombuu · · Score: 2

      , you have no privacy whatsoever on the streets

      So let me get this right, you are complaining that you don't have privacy in a public place? Um... isn't that the point of public places is that you have no expectations of privacy?


      --

      DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
    8. Re:1984, 2001 etc... by exeunt · · Score: 2
      I find that whenever a writer puts a date on his prediction, and makes it the title, they almost never come true.

      Yeah, look at Robotech, didn't the SDF crash into Macross Island sometime in 1999?
      ---

      --
      "...silence is a dangerous sound."
    9. Re:1984, 2001 etc... by Abigail-II · · Score: 2
      The Earth did not acquire its one billionth human until the 18th or 19th century. The second billion came in less than a century. There are many people alive today who were born well before the four billion mark - and now we're over six billion.

      Indeed, and there is an enormous momentum, many people are still young, and haven't finished, or even started, reproducing yet.

      Which means, that the number of people being born each day is enormous. Just in China alone, (which has pretty good family planning nowadays), the amount of people born each year equals the number of people living in Germany.

      I am fully aware of the size of the population, and its rapid growth. And that's exactly why I said travelling away from the planet isn't going to solve the problem - you just can't shoot people of the planet fast enough to even make a dent in the growth of the population.

      Dealing with population growth isn't easy, but it's possible. And for much lower costs than space travel. You might want to buy the January issue of Scientific American, it has a nice article about family planning.

      -- Abigail

    10. Re:1984, 2001 etc... by SimonK · · Score: 2

      Uh, pardon ? I don't know where you live, or where you get your information, but we were talking about street cameras in the UK, whose stated purpose is to reduce street crime, and whose location bares this out.

  7. HAL is alive and well by jquiroga · · Score: 2

    Somewhere, HAL is alive.

    We can't believe HAL doesn't exist just because we haven't heard of it. The state-of-the-art in technologies with military applications is secret, and much more advanced than the published research, for obvious reasons. So 2001 may have been right in this also.

    I wonder if HAL is allowed to read slashdot :-)

  8. Re:HAL 9000 or HAL 98 by tolldog · · Score: 2

    Are you suggesting that if MS survives, HAL might be renamed to MSHAL?

    --
    -I just work here... how am I supposed to know?
  9. AI? by pb · · Score: 5

    Let me use an interface besides Emacs, HAL!

    I'm sorry, Dave, but I can't do that. LISP makes a lot more sense, once you get the hang of it. You should try it sometime.

    I just want to type! Don't make me press the power button, HAL.

    There is no power button, Dave. You would have to use the Meta-Hyper-Control Power-button command first, and then type in the access code.

    Okay, HAL, I'll do it.

    How do you feel now, HAL?

    Is it because do I feel now HAL that you came to me?

    Oops, that must have been the wrong button.

    Does it bother you that it must have been the wrong button?

    Aaaahhh!

    How are you feeling now, HAL?

    I'm in LOVE with DON KNOTTS!!

    Who? What are you talking about??

    Who wants some OYSTERS with SEN-SEN an' COOL WHIP?

    HAL, come back! I'm sorry!

    (With apologies to Arthur C. Clarke, RMS, Emacs Doctor, Zippy the Pinhead, and of course HAL)
    ---
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

    --
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
    1. Re:AI? by Kaufmann · · Score: 2

      (With apologies to Arthur C. Clarke, RMS, Emacs Doctor, Zippy the Pinhead, and of course HAL)

      You forgot Joseph Weizenbaum, inventor of the original ELIZA.

      --
      To the editors: your English is as bad as your Perl. Please go back to grade school.
  10. Re:A TLA before its time by DoomHaven · · Score: 3

    From here (search for IBM)

    # 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

    Incrementing each letter of ``HAL'' gives you ''IBM''.
    'Arthur C Clarke' (qv) (co-screenwriter) claimed this was unintentional, and if he had noticed it before it was too late, he would have changed it.

    --
    "Don't mind me cutting myself on Occam's Razor"
  11. HAL the murderer... by Speare · · Score: 2

    HAL-9000, the character, killed a human astronaut when two mission objectives were at odds.

    I heard a rumor a long while back that there was an accident during filming of either 2001 or 2010. It was in the big red memory chamber of HAL. I can't find any web reference to it now. The actors and crew people had to be hoisted by cables into positions in that chamber, and the rumor goes, that a cable broke and someone fell. Serious or fatal injury.

    Anyone with facts to credit or discredit this?

    --
    [ .sig file not found ]
  12. Heuristic ALgorithmic by Vryl · · Score: 2
    is what acc claims in I think 2010 or somewhere else.

    but I think he's lying.

    of course is it caeser cypher for IBM

  13. Re:HAL 9000's predecessors and successors by mad_dwarf · · Score: 2

    I seem to remember that the twin was called SAL 9000 (had a female voice). Some of the chips from SAL were taken out and put into HAL to activate him for 2010.

    --
    Chaos, panic, and disorder - my work here is done.
  14. Re: Actually, the song goes... by dylan_- · · Score: 2

    2nd Verse

    "Michael, Michael
    Here is my answer true
    I won't cycle
    Down to the church with you

    If you can't afford a carriage
    You can't afford a marriage
    And I'll be damned
    If I'll be crammed
    On a bicycle built for two"

    dylan_-


    --

    --
    Igor Presnyakov stole my hat
  15. Re:VMS -> WNT by Jamie+Zawinski · · Score: 2

    Anyway, just clearing up a common misconception. VMS->WNT, like HAL->IBM, is a coincidence.

    Or maybe not:

    • From: Uri London <uril@microsoft.com>

      This is a very old stuff. Anyway, this is just half of the story. About a year and a half after the beginning of the developing process of NT, someone discover that WNT is VMS++. so he asked Dave about that, and his answer was: "wow, It took you too long to find that".

    The Dave above is David Cutler, who was the primary architect of both WNT and VMS.

  16. Re:A TLA before its time by Abigail-II · · Score: 2
    If you change the letters "HAL" to the following ones in the alphabet, you get "IBM". I read somewhere that was no coincidence.

    Except that Arthur C. Clarke claims it was unintentional.

    -- Abigail

  17. Book and movie disagree. by Abigail-II · · Score: 2
    According to the book, he was activated on this day in 1997.

    But according to the movie HAL was activated in 1992.

    -- Abigail

  18. Re:It's Life Jim But Not As We Know IT! by Mr+Windows · · Score: 2
    ...I would not be surprised if a real AI is created within the next 10-20 years.

    Come back in 20 years; people will still be saying that, as they were 20 years ago :)

    Of course, that all depends on what your definition of 'real AI' is. We don't really have a good idea of what intelligence really is; the best definition that I've seen is in Hofstadter's 'Goedel, Escher, Bach', and goes something like "Intelligence is anything we can't yet automate; as soon as something is automated, it becomes clear that it's not the key to intelligence".

    HTH, but I doubt that it does,

    Stephen

  19. Happy B-Day HAL by Doctor_D · · Score: 2

    Welp, in a way I'd wish it were so, but then most of us geeks would most likely be working at HAL labs then. Honestly, with HAL's out there, would they need UNIX admins? Suits would love that idea, less people to have to pay in that "cost center" of IT.

    Anyhow it's kinda a shame some of the tech in the book/movie hasn't come true. Most of it was very much within our reach, granted AI hasn't advanced as much as Clarke forsaw. But videophones are within reach now (Voice-over-ip and a webcam, or some of that closed source stuff like NetMeeting, Intel ProShare (I think that's what it is called)). As far as the space science, NASA seems to be proving Ion-Drives with Deep Space 1, Hibernation (not there yet), Space Planes (research is underway, at least from what I've read in Scientific American), Space Stations (Int'l Space Station being built), moon base (why is it we haven't been back since the late 60's and early 70's?).

    In any case, most of what Clarke forsaw was pretty much within humanities' grasp by this time. Granted science is kinda like Linus in a way...it will be released when it's ready. The only difference is the peer review of results in science, in the Linux Kernel it's a peer review of the code... :)

    --
    "If you insist on using Windoze you're on your own."
  20. Re:But what about his uptime? by YIAAL · · Score: 2

    That was the problem. Before the mission was launched, someone forgot to install Service Pack 3, which patched a rogue-computer-turning-on-humans bug that had been in the earlier version of HAL. There's a rumor he was really running HAL '98, not HAL 5000.

    --

    InstaPundit! Ahead of the Curve Since 30 Minutes Ago
  21. Speech Synthesis by Detritus · · Score: 2

    Every time I watch 2001, I wonder why we don't have speech synthesis software that sounds as good as HAL. Most of the current software generates speech that is difficult to understand.

    --
    Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
  22. Re:That was one seriously messed up movie by Rombuu · · Score: 2

    You do know that the book is based on the movie not visa-versa, right?


    --

    DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
  23. Re:I'm 30 today. Anyone remember "Logans Run"? by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 2

    warroonsert writes:

    Anyone remember the movie "Logan's Run"? That's a great movie to watch on your 30th birthday.
    I also turn 30 today. (Or, if you prefer, 0x1E, or 036 - doesn't look as interesting in hex or octal, does it?)

    I'm celebrating by getting a tattoo, meeting some friends for a few beers, and heading out to the mountains for a few days (yes, a few days off the net, believe it or not one can actually survive). Think I'll skip watching Logan's Run, though. Anyone else remember the really bad TV show, or the so-so series of books, that it spawned?

    Happy birthday to HAL, to warroonsert, and to everyone else with a b-day today. Well, except Rush Limbaugh and Hermann Goring.

    --
    Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
    You cannot wash away blood with blood
  24. Re:That was one seriously messed up movie by Rombuu · · Score: 2

    If you can find a copy of it, The Lost Worlds of 20001 by Clarke is an interesting read. You can hear about all the stuff he wanted to include but Kubrick didn't want to include (most of which seems to show up in 2010...)

    --

    DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
  25. Take a hike. by hey! · · Score: 2

    I seriously don't mind that but, then when the population reaches
    the point that where earth cannot any longer sustain it, we are going to have a problem

    I wonder whether computers predispose people to think in this unrealistically optimistic way. I'd like to visit a space station or a Mars base and maybe live there a few months, but not to be exiled there.

    Planets are like lives: you only get one. You screw it up -- bzzt! thanks for playing the game.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  26. 2001 as Blair Witch Project (bear with me) by Pfhreakaz0id · · Score: 2

    Well, I don't think you are really dissing the movie, but..

    2001 appears on almost all critics' top 20 lists. There is a reason for this -- it was completely different in many respects from movies that preceded it. It had a story that really didn't have a conclusion (it built tension, but never released that in SO many ways. I'm not talking a movie that is hard to figure out, but one that is, by it's very nature, personal, not mass.) It was slow. very slow. It had very little dialogue, etc, etc.

    In short, while the movie was very popular among many, causing them to sing it's praises and build a cult-type following, there were a fair amount of people (as someone noted below) who "didn't get it." Some became quite insistent it was a piece of crap and were bewildered at critics (and non-critics) who judged it for what it was: a leap forward in cinema.

    I was reminded of this the previous summer by The Blair Witch Project, a similiarly ground-breaking movie that a minority of people hated because they "just didn't get it", but most critics hailed as "groundbreaking." Sounds familiar, huh?

    Anyway, this comment reminded me and I thought I'd share.

    --
    DO NOT DISTURB THE SE
  27. For all the skinny on HAL and 2001... by SydBarrett · · Score: 2
    Check out:

    Underman's 2001

    The section on how some of the special effects were done is great. Did anyone ever notice that during the Turn The Pod Around HAL scene that HAL lies? Even though he can read lips, he refuses to turn the pod around when the comm link is shut off, making the crew think that he can't hear them.

    In the same regards, the AE Unit failure can be seen as a trust exercise by HAL to see wiether or not the crew really trusts HAL's data, and in turn be trusted to complete the mission.

  28. Re:That theory is very old by cabbey · · Score: 2

    just out of curiosity, what alphabet do you use?

    H + 1 = I
    A + 1 = B
    L + 1 = M

    or in other words

    I - 1 = H
    B - 1 = A
    M - 1 = L

    thus HAL is less than IBM... but then I wouldn't have bought that argument if it was JCN's birhtday instead of HAL's either....

  29. Re:Y2k Proof? by Haven · · Score: 2

    Given that in 2000 the world is looking at making the 64-bit transition on the desktop in the next 5 years

    I'm sure they said things like that in the 1970's when they programmed the computers at the time.