2001... did you know

[redsoxliberal]

HAL + 1 letter
=
IBM


coincidence?

I think not.

[Feathered Fish]

1. Of course not

Nothing in Kubrick's movies are coincidental. Plus, most numbers are very important in his films as well. The numerology in the Shining is legendary.

[ET Awful]

3. HAL wasn't a Kubrick creation, it was an Arthur C. Clarke creation

:)

[Feathered Fish]

7. Ah..

Is HAL featured in 'The Sentinel'? or is it in the story he wrote just prior to writing the screenplay? I don't know. :)

[ET Awful]

9. The Sentinel was only one of several Clarke stories that were drawn

on for the movie. Additionally, Clarke wrote the majority of the movie in a collaborative fashion with Kubrick.

[Feathered Fish]

10. Which other stories?

I know that they wrote the screenplay collaboratively, but I don't know which other stories (which is shameful on my part :( ). I just watched the doc 2001 and Beyond yesterday for godsakes. Man, I have NO memory. :D

[ET Awful]

11. I can't recall them off the top of my head to be honest, but

I did see a list of all them several years ago. There were half a dozen or so that were drawn on for different aspects of the story.

[Feathered Fish]

12. Ok

I just read "The Sentinel" and HAL is not there, but upon reading other articles in a few books that I have, I think that HAL was conceived by both Kubrick and Clarke for the early novel/screenplay "Journey Beyond the Stars" (the book and movie were then renamed 2001: A Space Odyssey).
Also, my first post was incorrect. It seems that Kubrick was informed by a professional code breaker that HAL+1=IBM, after the release of the film, so it was, in fact, coincidental. oops.

[SheilaT]

13. I don't recall HAL

being in "The Sentinel". Which is a fine story that was turned into a truly dreadful movie.

In my opinion "2001" is one of the most laughably bad movies made. And of course it's not really science fiction. It is, however, quite prophetic in its own way. Notice the lousy load factors (number of passengers, or lack thereof) on the PanAm flight to the moon. No wonder they went out of business.

[ET Awful]

2. Ask Arthur C. Clarke :)

I'd say it was intentional.

[qnr]

5. Beat me to it, and it was, according to an interview many years ago. n/t

[FormerDittoHead]

4. 2 points about HAL

First off, if you look closely, HAL *IS* an IBM computer (corporate identities were all over the place in the movie)

Secondly, Clarke stated that HAL stood for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer..

Paul is a dead man. Miss him, miss him, miss him.

[qnr]

6. Yes, but he stated it also meant "one step up" or something of that

nature. And yes, I know H < I - maybe it was one step down, or up in the sense of being closer to the beginning.

[ET Awful]

8. I couldn't remember the acronym

But, I have an odd feeling that he came up with the acronym before he decided what words to make it stand for.