Previous
Chapter 18
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
Even two hundred million miles away, Bowman marvels at the scale-defying size of Jupiter, wondering what mysteries lie beneath its gaseous surface. During hours spent alone on the control deck, he sometimes tunes into the planet’s audible “radio voice”—an eerie, hissing roar that has “nothing to do with Man.” Passing by Jupiter’s various satellites, Discovery begins collecting data; being so far from home, however, the ship now experiences an hour delay in its communications with Earth, despite the rapid speed of radio communication. Though their trajectory is carefully calibrated by Hal, Bowman has trouble believing their ship is not being sucked into Jupiter’s immense gravitational pull. The closer they get to the planet, the larger it seems.
Here, Bowman struggles to wrap his mind around the magnitude of Jupiter. This highlights the human utility of science, as well as its limitations. Though it can describe the size of Jupiter in human terms, and explain what it’s made of, no amount of scientific knowledge can make the planet comprehensible on a personal scale to a human like Bowman. He is simply too small and his lifespan too short to make sense of something like Jupiter. As such, this encounter underscores the biological limits of human understanding, foreshadowing humanity’s biological transcendence in the form of the Star-Child.
Themes
Discovery drops two atmospheric probes to Jupiter. Bowman and Poole observe Hal’s finely tuned course around the planet. The sun vanishes behind it, and Bowman and Poole stare in wonder at the phosphorescent world below. As expected, the ship loses temporary communication with Earth, overwhelming the crew with loneliness. Though they are veterans of space travel, their current mission is beyond anything ever attempted, and the smallest error could send Discovery reeling off into the solar system. Radio contact returns, and Hal reports the successful completion of their orbital operation. Though the ship stole momentum from Jupiter, the change to the planet is undetectable; the era had not yet arrived when “Man could leave his mark on the solar system.”
Again, the narrator underscores humanity’s limitations, both biological and technological. For all of humanity’s incredible scientific innovation and achievement, even the slightest error could spell the end of Discovery One’s mission, stranding the ship and its inhabitants in empty space. This underscores the precariousness of the mission, as well as humanity’s lack of control over space as an environment. Humanity, though powerful on Earth, struggles to leverage the forces of the solar system for its own devices.
Themes
