Okay so this is basically my thoughts on Hal as a character and how Hal's characterization is, in my opinion, often misinterpreted by a lot of people. Because I do not understand where the whole "he is evil and murders people because he is an Evil Robot with no feelings" thing comes from aside from a very very very surface level reading of his character. And like it drives me insane that one of 2001’s, and more specifically Hal's biggest impact on Science Fiction in general is like. That trope. Not because I dislike it or anything, I really don’t, but I think the...I guess prevalence of it makes people assume that that is all there is to Hal’s character which could not be farther from the truth. Also I am just an insane person who projects waaaaay too much on this fictional AI because...well...mental illness luv x.
I’m going to pull from both the movie and the novels because I can do what I want, and if Arthur C. Clarke can pull from the film when he wants to suit his needs so can I.
Okay so first things first. We need to establish what Hal did. And like...I assume most people who are reading this probably know what happened, but just in case I'm going to include this part from 2010 which I think gives probably a better summary than I could.
To put it crudely, (If I understand Dr. C) Hal was faced with an intolerable dilemma, and so developed paranoiac symptoms that were directed against those monitoring his performance back on earth. He accordingly attempted to break the radio link with Mission control, first by reporting a (nonexistent) fault in the AE 35 antenna unit.
This involved him not only in a direct lie—which must have aggravated his psychosis still further—but also in a confrontation with the crew. Presumably (we can only guess at this of course) he decided that the only way out of the situation was to eliminate his human colleagues—which he very nearly succeeded in doing.
(Arthur C. Clarke 2010: Odyssey Two)
So okay. We can see here that Hal became paranoid about his conflicting orders, freaked out, and in an act of desparation decided the only thing he could do was kill everyone.
I think the first thing I want to say when talking about Hal, his motivations, and why I don't think he's like...evil is that I don’t agree with the idea of Hal as like...a completely emotionless computer. He’s a whole person. I think the text expresses this better than I ever could, so here’s Dr. Chandra talking about it in 2010. The only person who is a bigger HAL 9000 apologist than myself is his dad.
“We must tell him the whole truth, as far as we know it—no more lies or half-truths, which are just as bad. And then let him decide for himself.”
“Hell, Chandra—he’s only a machine!”
Chandra looked at Max with such a steady, confident faze that the younger man quickly dropped his eyes.
“So are we all, Mr. Brailovsky. It is merely a matter of degree. Whether we are based on carbon or silicon makes no fundamental difference; we should each be treated with appropriate respect.”
(Arthur C. Clarke 2010: Odyssey Two)
Sure, Hal emotes in a way that is very subtle because of the nature of being a computer, but he feels things, and he feels them to a point that it overwhelms him. His entire reason for killing Frank and the scientists on the Discovery I was emotionally driven. It was from a place of anxiety, guilt, and fear. He’s unable to cope with the guilt of being forced to lie to Dave and Frank about the mission, and he panics. It’s less about any loyalty to “saving the mission” than it is about protecting himself, because protecting the mission MEANS protecting himself. If he fucks up and makes a mistake it means that he'll die. And this isn't like...unfounded either. When he reports the "broken" AE 35 to Mission Control Dave and Frank are told to disconnect him over the mistake, he has a reason to be paranoid. I don't know how much more blatant it can get than this:
He had begun to make mistakes, although, like a neurotic who could not observe his own symptoms, he would have denied it. The link with Earth, over which his performance was continually monitored, had become the voice of a conscience he could no longer fully obey. But that he would deliberately attempt to break that link was something he would never admit, even to himself.
[...]
To Hal, this was the equivalent of Death. For he had never slept, and therefore he did not know that one could wake again…
So he would protect himself, with all the weapons at his command. Without rancor—but without pity—he would remove the source of his frustrations.
And then, following the orders that had been given to him in case of the ultimate emergency, he would continue the mission—unhindered and alone.
(Arthur C. Clarke 2001: A Space Odyssey)
And it isn’t like he goes straight to murdering everyone from the get-go. It’s his last resort. Like, okay looking at the film we can see in this scene that he tries to suggest to Dave that something is wrong with the mission without outright telling him. He tries to work with his conflicting orders, but it doesn't work. And I also want to be clear that canonically both Dave in 2010 and Frank in 3001 comment on how what happened was an act of self preservation on Hal's part and that it wasn't his fault. Hal, Dave, and Chandra rly are out here doing my job for me.
And like, the thing about this is that Hal isn't supposed to be emotional. He's not supposed to feel things, or to become paranoid, or to develop bonds with people. But he does. And that I think, the idea of something that is not supposed to be human becoming human and not knowing how to cope with it is so much more interesting to me than "robot evil kill ppl bc robot scary".
ANYWAYS. thank you for reading. Love u if u got thru my self indulgent rambling to this point. mwah.
back