2001: A Space Odyssey part 4.Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.Username: MagneticDate: 2020-05-24 18:44:51Reaction Score: 2
HALucifer has just informed commander Bowman that the AE-35 unit(actually the magnetic field of earth) will fail in 72 hours. The astronauts check with mission control about the failure of the unit.
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| Bowm | Well, Hal. I'm damned if I can find anything wrong with it. | ||
| Hal | Yes. It's puzzling. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this before. I would recommend that we put the unit back in operation and let it fail. It should then be a simple matter to track down the cause. We can certainly afford to be out of communication for the short time it will take to replace it. | ||
| Mission control | X-ray-delta-one this is mission control. Roger your one-niner-three-zero. We concur with your plan to replace number one unit to check fault prediction. We should advise you, however, that our preliminary findings indicate that your on-board niner-triple-zero computer is in error predicting the fault. I say again in error predicting the fault. I know this sounds rather incredible but this conclusion is based on results from our twin niner-triple-zero computer. We are skeptical ourselves and we are running cross checking routines to determine reliability of this conclusion. Sorry about this little snag, fellows. And we'll get this info to you just as soon as we work it out. X-ray-delta-one this is mission control two-zero-four-niner transmission concluded. | ||
| Hal | I hope the two of you are not concerned about this. | ||
| Bowm | No, I'm not Hal. | ||
| Hal | Are you quite sure? | ||
| Bowm | Yeah. I'd like to ask you a question, though. | ||
| Hal | Of course. | ||
| Bowm | How would you account for this discrepancy between you and the twin nine-thousand? | ||
| Hal | Well, I don't think there is any question about it. It can only be attributable to human error. This sort of thing has cropped up before and it has always been due to human error. | ||
| Poole | Listen, Hal. There's never been any instance at all of a computer error occurring in the nine-thousand series has there? | ||
| Hal | None whatsoever, Frank. The nine-thousand series has a perfect operational record. | ||
| Poole | Well, of course, I know all about the wonderful achievements of the nine-thousand series but, er, are you certain there's never been any case of even the most insignificant computer error? | ||
| Hal | None, whatsoever, Frank. Quite honestly I wouldn't worry myself about that. | ||
| Bowm | Well, I'm sure you're right, Hal. Erm, fine. Thanks very much. Oh, Frank, I'm having a bit of trouble with my transmitter in C-pod. I wonder if you'd come down take a look at it with me. | ||
| Poole | Sure. See you later, Hal. |
Next the astronauts retire to a space pod and turn off all of the sound microphones thinking HALucifer can't hear them.
| Poole | What sort of trouble've you been having, Dave? |
| Bowm | Uh, I've been getting some interference on D-channel. |
| Poole | Mm. We'll have a look at it. |
| Bowm | Open the door, Hal. Rotate pod please, Hal. Stop pod rotation please, Hal. Rotate the pod please, Hal. Rotate the pod please, Hal. I don't think he can hear us. |
| Poole | Rotate the pod please, Hal. Yeah I'm sure we're OK. Well what do you think? |
| Bowm | I'm not sure. What do you think? |
| Poole | I've got a bad feeling about him. |
| Bowm | You do? |
| Poole | Yeah, definitely. Don't you? |
| Bowm | I don't know. I think so. You know, of course though, he's right about the nine-thousand series having a perfect operational record. They do. |
| Poole | Unfortunately that sounds a little like famous last words. |
| Bowm | Yeah. Still it was his idea to carry out the failure-mode analysis wasn't it? |
| Poole | Mm. |
| Bowm | Should certainly indicate his integrity and self-confidence. If he were wrong it'd be the surest way of proving it. |
| Poole | It would be if he knew he was wrong. |
| Bowm | Mm. |
| Poole | Look, Dave, I can't put my finger on it but I sense something strange about him. |
| Bowm | Still I can't think of a good reason not to put back the number one unit and carry on with the failure-mode analysis. |
| Poole | No, no. I agree about that. |
| Bowm | Well lets get on with it. |
| Poole | OK. But look Dave. Lets say we put the unit back and it doesn't fail, huh. That would pretty well wrap it up as far as Hal was concerned wouldn't it. |
| Bowm | Well we'd be in very serious trouble. |
| Poole | We would, wouldn't we. |
| Bowm | Mm, hmm. |
| Poole | What the hell could we do? |
| Bowm | Well we wouldn't have too many alternatives. |
| Poole | I don't think we'd have any alternatives. There isn't a single aspect of ship operations that's not under his control. If he were proven to be malfunctioning I wouldn't see how we'd have any choice but disconnection. |
| Bowm | I'm afraid I agree with you. |
| Poole | There'd be nothing else to do. |
| Bowm | Be a bit tricky. |
| Poole | Yeah. |
| Bowm | We'd have to cut his higher brain functions… |
| Poole | Mm, hmm. |
| Bowm | …without disturbing the purely automatic and regulatory systems. And we'd have to work out the transfer procedures of continuing the mission under ground-based computer control. |
| Poole | Yeah. Well that's far safer than allowing Hal to continue running things. |
| Bowm | You know another thing just occurred to me. |
| Poole | Mm. |
| Bowm | Well as far as I know no nine-thousand computer's ever been disconnected. |
| Poole | No nine-thousand computer's ever fouled up before. |
| Bowm | That's not what I mean. |
| Poole | No? |
| Bowm | Well, I'm not so sure what he'd think about it. |
INTERMISSION

