Previous
Chapter 23
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
Signaling a forthcoming announcement, Hal makes an electronic “throat-clearing” sound—an idiosyncratic but useful quirk. Hal tells Bowman the second AE-35 unit has a fault, and Bowman is skeptical. Bowman asks if he knows the source of the problem, and Hal pauses unusually long before saying he doesn’t. Bowman inquires if anything is troubling Hal, followed by another strangely long pause from Hal. Hal reassures Bowman nothing is wrong, reminding him that he is “incapable of making an error.” Unsure how to respond, Bowman gives up arguing. Poole and Bowman receive a video message from Dr. Simonson, the Chief Programmer who reports that the fault is in Hal’s prediction circuits, not the AE-35 units.
Hal begins to show increasingly unusual behavior, deviating from his typical communication style. This is evident both in his recent adoption of electronic “throat-clearing,” an idiosyncratic quirk which signals an imminent unscheduled announcement, as well as in his discourse surrounding the failure of the second AE-35 unit. Questioned by Bowman about his diagnosis of the unit, for instance, Hal is unusually slow to respond. While such irregularities are typical of humans, they are not typical of a computer like Hal. However, the meaning of such deviations is yet unclear. While they could be benign symptoms of Hal’s burgeoning personality, they could also be signs of something more sinister.
Themes
Dr. Simonson begins describing next steps, starting with disconnecting Hal, when suddenly the video message cuts off. Hal reports that the AE-35 unit has failed, and Bowman and Poole feel embarrassed, realizing that Hal was right all along. At Hal’s behest, they affirm their restored confidence in his abilities. Bowman asks for manual control of the radio antenna, momentarily managing to resume contact with earth; however, a “spurious control signal” makes it buck like a “bronco,” and Bowman cannot maintain contact. Bowman and Poole are unsure what to do. They only have one spare, and it does not make sense to replace the unit until they know what’s wrong with it.
At least to Bowman and Poole, the failure of Dr. Simonson’s video feed confirms Hal’s diagnosis. However, Hal’s unusual behavior from before, combined with the inexplicable behavior of the manual control stick for the radio antenna, hints that things might not be as they seem. While possible, it seems hardly a coincidence that the video feed would cut off directly in the middle of Dr. Simonson’s directions for disconnecting Hal.
Themes
