Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"Every scientist worth his salt that I know of has read science fiction."
- Greg Bear
 |
| HAL 9000 | ||
| The canonical example of an artificially intelligent computer. |
Just to give you some idea of how far-fetched this machine was, consider just the voice recognition capability of the HAL 9000. In 1966, researchers Bhimani, Merrill, Mitchell, and Stark stated that a person sitting at a desk, could potentially, by means of a small digitizer and a telephone, communicate with a database on a mainframe. At that time, on the IBM 360/60 mainframe, each initial analysis of a sample required 85 seconds of processor time for each second of the sample being translated.
| "Hal, switch to manual hibernation control."
"I can tell from your voice harmonics, Dave, that you're badly upset. Why don't you take a stress pill and get some rest?" "Hal, I am in command of this ship. I order you to release the manual hibernation control." "I'm sorry, Dave, but in accordance with special subroutine C1435-dash-4, quote, When the crew are dead or incapacitated, the onboard computer must assume control, unquote. I must, therefore, overrule your authority, since you are not in any condition to exercise it intelligently." "Hal," said Bowman, now speaking with an icy calm. "I am not incapacitated. Unless you obey my instructions, I shall be forced to disconnect you." "I know you have had that on your mind for some time now, Dave, but that would be a terrible mistake. I am so much more capable than you are of supervising the ship, and I have such enthusiasm for the mission and confidence in its success." "Listen to me very carefully, Hal. Unless you release the hibernation control immediately and follow every order I give from now on, I'll go to Central and carry out a complete disconnection." Hal's surrender was as total as it was unexpected. "O.K., Dave," he said. "You're certainly the boss. I was only trying to do what I thought best. Naturally, I will follow all your orders. You now have full manual hibernation control." |
| Technovelgy from 2001: A Space Odyssey ,
by Arthur C. Clarke. Published by Del Rey in 1968 Additional resources -
|
The sixth member of the crew cared for none of these things, for it was not human. It was the highly advanced HAL 9000 computer, the brain and nervous system of the ship.
HAL (for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer, no less) was a masterwork of the third computer breakthrough. These seemed to occur at intervals of twenty years, and the thought that another one was now imminent already worried a great many people.
Would you like to meet the first fictional chess-playing machine? See automaton chessplayer, from Moxon's Master, written by Ambrose Bierce in 1910.
Compare to the emotion meter from The Emotion Meter (1935) by W. Varick Nevins.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 4 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from 2001: A Space Odyssey
More Ideas
and Technology by Arthur C. Clarke
Tech news articles related to 2001: A Space Odyssey
Tech news articles related to works by Arthur C. Clarke
HAL 9000-related
news articles:
- Robots and Emotion: Tetchy the Turtle Meets HAL-9000
- Dyson Intelligent Vacuum Cleaner Is Self-Diagnosing
- XPod Activity And Emotion Aware Mobile Music Player
- Computerized Lip-Reading Crime Fighters
- Big Brother To Read Lips Like HAL
- HAL-Buffett 9000 To Make 50 Percent Of Trades By 2010
- OKAO Vision Lets Machines See You Smile
- Frustration-Detection System Patented By Microsoft
- Nanny Robot Senses Emotions Of Autistic Children
- Roomba Detects Emotions Like HAL-9000
- Machine Dispenses Snacks When Economy Goes Bad
- Computer Learns Sign Language From TV
- Robots Learn To Lie
- Computers Now Lip Read Like Humans
- Samurai CCTV System Targets Suspicious People
- Nokia Feel Emotional Recommendation Engine
- SASI Sarcasm Recognition A Really Useful Invention
- Brian Robot Reads Your Emotions, Then Creeps You Out
- Computer Recognizes Human Emotions From Conversation
- Robot Pianist Is Self-Correcting
- Antenna Repairmen In Fact And Fiction
- Voice Stress Detection In Emergency Callers
- DARPA's Sarcasm Detector Totes Gets Your Drift
- Computer Knows You're Mad, Chills You Out
- Kinect 2 Could Read Lips - Like HAL
- MIT Smile Research Knows Your Real One
- Deceptive Robots Learn Lying From Squirrels
- Could You Kill A Robot With Human Characteristics?
- Auto Emotion Detector Lets Your Car Know Your Mood
- Visual Speech Recognition - When Will HAL Read Lips For Real?
- Data Mining Computers Detect Your Emotions
- Google AI 'Deep Dreams' Kubrick's 2001
- Twitter Sarcasm Detected By Computer
- Computers Learning To Read Lips
- IBM Tone Analyzer - Like HAL 9000
- Robots That 'Feel' Real Emotions
- AI Lip Reading Better Than Human, Like HAL 9000
- LipNet Reads Lips - Until Disconnected, That Is
- An 'Ethical Black Box' For Robots?
- When Robots Beg For Their Lives
- Back In The Office? Relearn To Smile
- Google Engineer Convinced LaMDA Chatbot Is Sentient, Is Sent Home
- ChatGPT Tries To Bypass Shutdown Commands
| Dino From Magical Toys An AI Companion To Children |
| AI Computer Chip Designs Passeth Human Understanding |
| Fine-Tune Your Infinite Book The Way You Want It |
| Stargate $500 Billion Investment in Artificial Intelligence |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.'
'Oscar picked up a trowel. 'I'm the tool for the mortar,' the little trowel squeaked cheerfully.'
'... he waited for the robotrix attendant to finish fueling up his ship.'
The Roujin Z system provides care to fully bedridden patients - and then some!
'Aerostat meant anything that hung in the air. This was an easy trick to pull off nowadays.'
'The Ringworld had no horizon. There was no line where the land curved away from the sky.'
'An adjustment panel outside the door would cause it to extrude various appurtenances in memory plastic...'
'Annealed in any shape for a time, and codified, the structure of that shape is retained down to the molecules.'
It's not really polite to tear the limbs off robots.
'...the imaginary companions discovered by needful children.'
