According to Universetoday.com, this may answer a burning question posed by most people who have watched or read "2001: A Space Odyssey": that is, why does the computer HAL-9000 sing the song 'Daisy Bell' as the astronaut Dave Bowman takes him apart? Well, Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke made HAL's final act in the world this song as a tribute to HAL's great ancestor, the first IBM computer to ever sing.
In 1962 Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote the novel - and co-wrote the screenplay for the movie - "2001: A Space Odyssey", visited Bell Labs before putting the finishing touches on the work. There, he was treated to a performance of the song 'Daisy Bell' (or, 'A Bicycle Built for Two') by the IBM 704 computer. This evidently inspired him to have HAL sing the song as an homage to the programmers of the 704 at Bell Labs, John L. Kelly,
The Complete Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey Series
2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010: Odyssey two, 2061:
Odyssey three, 3001: The Final Odyssey
And, of course, HAL is just "IBM" displaced backward in the alphabet by one letter......as everyone knew at the time.
ReplyDeleteFor those who may not know, HAL is IBM with each letter shifted to the left by one.
ReplyDeleteWant the movie to make some sense? Read the books.
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