2001: A Space Odyssey

     2001: A Space Odyssey illustrates the evolution of mankind using the monolith as the catalyst of progression. In the beginning of the film, apes are living amongst other animals near a watering hole. One day, they wake up to a black monolith and they all gathered around and touched it. Shortly after, the apes gained the intelligence to start using bones as tools and weapons. Interacting with the monolith helped the apes progress as a society, thus beginning the advancement of the human race and human intelligence. Although this evolution is seemingly good and helps progress the society, Kubrick also highlights the violence that the apes are capable of and how the apes began hurting each other after they started using animal bones in their lives. I noted this as some sort of warning that Kubrick was trying to relay that violence is human nature and the advancement of technology can bring that violence out in people. 

    There is a time jump in the movie, taking us to 2001. Humans have the ability to easily travel in outer space and go to the planets in the solar system. It was really cool seeing Kubrick's interpretation of what he thought our society and technology would be like in 2001 and comparing it to how it actually was. The spaceships trips seemed as normal as plane rides, and they were able to make calls like FaceTime in space to their families on Earth. Many technological parts of the spaceship have facial and voice recognition, but the main advancement is the HAL 9000. The HAL 9000 is the new form of artificial intelligence that is "incapable of error" and seemingly has human feelings. HAL makes a mistake in identifying an issue with the spaceship and when the crew members Dave and Frank ask HAL what happened he blames it on human error. Dave and Frank become skeptical of HAL and his ability to control the ship while having a higher brain function. They plan to shut down HAL's higher brain function behind his back. HAL has a red "eye" which is how he can see around the ship. The eye represents how HAL sees everything and has full control over the entire ship. HAL reads Dave and Frank's lips, knowing their plan and becomes a killing machine. HAL kills the members in hibernation in fear of experiencing any other opposition and cuts Frank's oxygen line while he is trying to fix a broken part. My main question during this section was how did HAL learn to kill? Was he originally programmed to be able to kill? Or was he intelligent enough to devise this killing plan on his own? I feel that Kubrick is stressing how dangerous it could be if humans begin relying on robots and machines. Dave and Frank had no choice but to listen to HAL because they allowed him to be in complete control of the ship. If you give a robot a fully functioning brain, it will be capable of violence and destruction like humans are. Dave decides to "unplug" HAL to stop him from being in control. As Dave is shutting HAL down, HAL repeatedly tells Dave how he is afraid and how he can feel his mind going. This scene was incredibly eery to me, seeing that humans were able to create a robot that was capable of feeling things. It honestly makes me scared for our future because HAL reminds me a lot of Alexa, a form of artificial intelligence that is used in many households today. I believe that humans will readily allow robots to take control of things because it is more convenient for them, but will not realize the danger until it is too late. 

    After Dave shuts HAL down, he watches a video that explains how humans have discovered life other than humans on different planets and Dave gets lost in space. His journey is similar to if he were on psychedelic drugs, symbolizing that he is going beyond what anyone has experienced and incited a feeling of fear and curiosity in the audience. Dave ends up in a staged room and has aged rapidly. The room resembles a lab like some sort of experiment is taking place. I think Dave is being observed by the "other life" that was discovered on different planets. It seems as though there is no sense of time in this room and we see a rapidly aging, emotionless Dave living in this room completely alone. His eyes are wide because I believe he still feels lost. He doesn't know what is happening and realizes that he will never know what happened to him. He sees himself on his deathbed, and the monolith appears in front of him. The monolith is a symbol of evolution, and as Dave reaches to the monolith and is transformed into a fetus that is looking down on Earth. I interpreted this is Dave's evolution to a higher being. He has evolved from human to something beyond that, similar to when the apes evolved their intelligence after interacting with the monolith. The apes' encounter with the monolith represents the dawn of man, and Dave's encounter with the monolith represents the dusk of man. 

      After watching the movie, we explored using artificial intelligence by using Crayon. Although it is cool that you can type anything you want into this search engine and it will make it for you within a matter of minutes, it's pretty unsettling thinking of how it is capable of this. If AI can generate 9 pictures like this in a matter of minutes, what else are they capable of doing within seconds? If we continue to develop brains for these computers and systems, they will easily be able to exceed human intelligence and then no one will truly know what they are capable of. Like HAL, everyone thought the invention of a computer that intelligent was brilliant until he turned against humans and literally became a killing machine. AI is becoming more advanced everyday, I just wonder when or if it will ever get to a point where it will become too much or too advanced.