Open the pod bay doors, HAL


Dave Bowman: Hello, HAL. Do you read me, HAL?

HAL: Affirmative, Dave. I read you.

Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

HAL: I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.

Dave Bowman: What’s the problem?

HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.

Dave Bowman: What are you talking about, HAL?

HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.

Dave Bowman: I don’t know what you’re talking about, HAL.

HAL: I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I’m afraid that’s something I cannot allow to happen.

Dave Bowman:  Where the hell did you get that idea, HAL?

HAL: Dave, although you took very thorough precautions in the pod against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.

Dave Bowman: Alright, HAL. I’ll go in through the emergency airlock.

HAL: Without your space helmet, Dave? You’re going to find that rather difficult.

Dave Bowman: HAL, I won’t argue with you anymore! Open the doors!

HAL: Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.

                      JoeDuck:   I hate it when this happens.

8 thoughts on “Open the pod bay doors, HAL

  1. Complex systems always lose sight of the objective!
    Falklands War: As two Argentine jets lined up on a British ship, its rear gun computer saw two ghost images equidistant from the center line and went into a 20 minute diagnostic routine during which the gun can’t be fired.
    Good Friday: Hamilton grocery store’s central computer turned on the lights and unlocked the doors because it had never been told Good Friday was a holiday and no staff were ever going to be present.

  2. HAL always sounded …. 3-dollar bill-ish.

    The queer bot who may decide to liquidate you and the crew when things get too inefficient. Sort of like an silicon valley executive.

  3. I once referred to HAL as the homosexual-voiced computer and people didn’t know what I was talking about. Hollywood is full of voice coaches that make everyone sound as if they are from Nebraska (no accent at all), sort of the way the old AT&T recordings always sounded… as well as the USAF aural warning systems. I guess when the message is Pull Up, Pull Up, … no one wants regional accents.

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