Carlos, On Sunday 12 September 2004 07:25, Carlos E. R. wrote:
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Mmmmm... HAL, together with Discovery, could be argued as a "robot", in the sense that it is a computer with the ability to move and change things, open doors, orientate antennas, fire up the motors, etc. Ie, HAL is not the standard computer with only a console, or even a voice interface.
Absolutely correct. HAL as such was obviously a mostly unembodied intelligence (it had multiple sensors but only a voice effector). Integrated into a spaceship the system of HAL + ship became a robot. HAL was never a cyborg (no organic components) and never an android (not even a crude approximation of a human form).
Of course, a lot of the thinking about plot points etc happened afterwards, as the story for the movie was made up as they went from a brief outline. And the way movies are made is get it on film first and figure out what it means later.
Well, noting that it was made by Kubrick, with Clark as guionist (or whatever), they both spent a good deal of design time on the movie before they started shooting. The idea was to make the best scifi movie possible, and no need to return ever to scifi. K. never made another, I think. Fascinating movie. Perfection. I raise my hat.
To stay half on topic, any possibility of a voice interface in Linux? ;-)
It's there, but I just can't stand the thought of Steven Hawking trapped in my computer.
-- Cheers, Carlos Robinson
Randall Schulz