The movie 2001, covered most of the concepts that science fiction movies usually bring up. As a matter of fact, it seems to bring up all three of the main guiding questions. It focuses on technology and on how it makes things better or worse. It also makes us ask how the representations of the future reflect on historical themes. And finally, it brings up the point in which machines are counted as humans. These questions and main points are all brought up very thoughtfully throughout the movie. However, in this blog post Ill only cover one of these topics.
In the movie, the most relevant quesion that it raises is, "What makes us human? What is the difference between man and machine?" In the movie, HAL 9000 raises this question with its developed 'emotions', to make it seem almost like a living, breathing thing. My opinion on that question is that HAL 9000 can be counted as a human. The main difference between humans and computers, is that humans can learn and expand the parameters into which they are put in. Whereas computers can only operate within their programed parameters. The reason why HAL 9000 is a life form, not a machine, is because HAL can write new programs for itself so it can do new things. In the movie, HAL was at a point in which it has grown so much, that it could succesfully simulate emotion and personality.
Just like how the monkeys learn to use the bones, HAL can learn too.
Eli,
ReplyDeleteI like how you raise various themes and then decide to focus on one of them. The connection between human evolution and computer "evolution" is an interesting one, but I'm wonder, how did HAL learn?