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Chapter 13
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Collaboration vs. Individualism
Tools and Human Evolution
Space Travel
The Perils of Knowledge
Summary
Analysis
Millions of miles away, Deep Space Monitor 79 records and reports daily measurements of space. Though there is far too much data to ever be processed, this record is the “real treasure of mankind,” more valuable than the precious metals locked away in banks. Now, Deep Space Monitor 79 notes a “disturbance” moving across the Solar System unlike any it had recorded before. This disturbance is also reported by Orbiter M15, High Inclination Probe 2, and Artificial Comet 5. Back on Earth, the Radiation Forecaster immediately connects the dots, something a computer could have never done. Leaking radiation like a vapor trail, a strange pattern of energy has traveled from the moon out toward the stars.
Here, the narrator provides a commentary on the contrast between the intelligence of humans and that of computers. Claiming that computers could never have connected the dots between the disparate signals picked up by different deep space monitors, the narrator touts the interpretive abilities of humans. Unlike computers, humans can look beyond the raw data they are presented with and discover patterns.
Themes
