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 Today is the 22nd birthday — or maybe the 17th — of a now classic fictional “character.” That’s HAL 9000, the computer that plays a central role in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. In both the movie, co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, and Clarke’s book, HAL tells astronaut David Bowman that he “became operational” on January 12. In the movie, released first, that day is placed in 1992. In the novel, however, the birth year is 1997.
Regardless of the year, HAL became essentially a cultural icon upon the movie’s release in 1968. Thanks to artificial intelligence, “[t]hroughout the film, HAL talks like a person, thinks like a person, plans — badly, it turns out — like a person, and, when he is about to die, begs like a person.” In 2003, in fact, the American Film Institute ranked HAL 13th on its list of the top 50 film villains of all time.
HAL’s discussion of its origins comes when Bowman shuts it down by removing various hardware modules from HAL’s large central core (microprocessors were still on the horizon). Ultimately, though, it turned out HAL wasn’t dead. It would appear in each of the three sequels Clarke wrote but only one of those would have a film version.
We’re long past HAL’s birthday, whichever year it was, and even further down the road from HAL’s appearance on the big screen. But HAL is remains an indelible character.
I’m afraid. I’m afraid, Dave.
HAL 9000, 2001: A Space Odyssey
Interesting Reading in the Interweb Tubes
- Distinguishing Science From Nonsense (“Children are not going to flourish at science in a society that treats science either as something you can believe in selectively, something that is simply one point of view, or something about which anyone can have a credible opinion no matter how ill-qualified, dumb, or misinformed.”)
- The Decline and Fall of the Book Reviewing Empire (“According to [an NYT op-ed], readers are on the internet in the millions, but…well, they’re just recommending books to each other without any academic or professional credits whatsoever. It’s appalling, these filthy commoners just saying to each other “you might like to read this” like they’re allowed.
Lawsuit of the Week
- A British woman sued her divorce lawyers, claiming they should have made it clear a divorce would end her marriage
Sad Societal Commentary of the Week
- An Australian has developed a bullet-proof bookcase to protect children caught in any future school gun attacks in the U.S.
Blog Headline of the Week
Bookish Linkage
Nonbookish Linkage
It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World
Interesting Reading in the Interweb Tubes
Irony of the Week
- The organization obtaining a stay of contraceptive coverage under the new health insurance regulations was an order of Catholic nuns. Putting aside that the organization is exempt from the rule, I would not think the existence of such coverage would lead nuns to use it.
Bookish Linkage
Nonbookish Linkage
Any dog under 50 pounds is a cat, and cats are pointless.
Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), Parks and Recreation, “Emergency Response”
One word best sums up my reading in 2013 — ebooks. Two-thirds of the books I read this year were ebooks, up from under 50 percent the year before. In fact, even though I read 30 fewer books in 2013, I read seven more ebooks than in 2012. And although I read more than 41,000 pages in 2013, that’s some 10,000 (that’s right, five digits) less than in 2012. I’ve no clue for the cause of the decline as I would have guessed I’d read about as much this year as last. In fact, the number of books and pages are even less than in 2011.
The counts don’t include graphic novels (I read a handful) or audiobooks. Just more than half the books I read were nonfiction, also a change from the prior two years. In that area, nearly two-thirds of the books were history or autobiographies, memoirs or biographies. Here’s a breakdown of how the year shaped up:
Books Read: 132
Pages Read: 41,560
Fiction: 60 (45.5 percent)
- Translated Works: 20 (17 fiction and three nonfiction)
- Languages: German (7), Russian (4), Albanian (2), French (2), Spanish (2), Chinese (1), Polish (1), Portuguese (1)
- Science Fiction: 17
- Short Stories: 3
Non-fiction: 72 (54.5 percent)
- Autobiography/Memoirs: 18 (25 percent of nonfiction)
- Biography: 4
- History: 25 (35 percent of nonfiction)
Ebooks Read: 82 (62.1 percent)
Library materials: 27 (20.5 percent) (includes ebooks)
Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but, most importantly, it finds homes for us everywhere.
Hazel Rochman, “Against Borders“
Interesting Reading in the Interweb Tubes
- Burn the Fucking System to the Ground (“The system is not fixable because it is not broken. It is working, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to give the insiders their royal prerogatives, and to shove the regulations, the laws, and the debt up the asses of everyone else.”)
Christmas-related Interesting Reading in the Interweb Tubes
- Santa’s Privacy Policy (“Sharing is one of the joys of Christmas. For this reason, we share your personal information with our affiliates, non-affiliated third parties, and anyone else who has a legitimate financial stake in a successful holiday season.”)
- How Santa Hurts Christmas (“After spending years deceiving our children about the jolly man who brings presents, can we really say “Gee you got us, but that part about the Virgin giving birth to a child? Now that’s the real deal”?)
Nonbookish Linkage
New Year Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time.
James Agate, Ego 5
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Disclaimer 
Additionally, some links on this blog go to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. There is no additional cost to you. Contact me You can e-mail me at prairieprogressive at gmaildotcom.
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