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| Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. With the various re-releases around the world, including the Cannes Festival in May, the younger generation has an opportunity to experience one of the most iconic films in the history of cinema. Every generation of humanity deserves ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. It is the film that has shown us the potential of our imaginations and how far we will go to actualize them. One should be in awe, or even in a sense of chill, how Stanley Kubrick could predict so many things correctly half a century ago. Space travel, various type of computers, video conferencing, the potential of internet and virtuality, tablet computers, corporate business, the all-dread frozen dinner, the perfect breakup line, online birthday wishes, and the sad fact that we indulge in our smart phones or tablet computers when we dine with others, you name it. It is fair to say that ‘2001’ is a film that has shaped the way we look at the modern world, and we have clearly taken inspirations to drive the development of our future. This time, I am talking about the iconic central part of the film – the struggle between humanity and an artifact Man has created – an artificial intelligent computer known as HAL. No matter you have heard of that before or not – just Open the Pod Bay Doors, HAL! 
In the first part of the film, ‘The
Dawn of Man’, Moon Watcher, the dominant ape in the tribe, discovered the first
use of a tool. Combined with his instinct for control and violence, he
successfully chased away a rival tribe of apes with his friends, claiming
ownership of a property in the ancient world – a water hole. With a brilliant
match cut, Kubrick has taken the audience to an era we are more familiar with –
the Space Age. With John Strauss’ ‘The Blue Danube’, various spacecrafts drift
in the space in a harmonious manner, signifying that humans have developed a
better understanding of the universe, through the use of technology. The reason
why we are at ease and feel harmonious with our surroundings is because we have
the intelligence to gain power and master our surroundings, rather than
submitting passively to that. While we will see that Kubrick had a complex view
regarding technology and artifacts, it is important to note that Kubrick was
never anti-technology per se. He had no reservation about human’s ability to
use technology and concepts to lead to a more advantageous existence, and he
celebrated that by juxtaposing that with a beautiful piece of classical music. In
an evolutionary point of view, if humans do not possess the cognitive abilities
to create all the technical artifacts, we will have not much difference from a
bunch of apes! What Kubrick was driving at here was that, while he affirmed the
achievement humans have made, he knew that it was far from finishing, and there
were some issues to settle before moving on. One can compare this idea with
Nietzsche’s philosophy. With the ‘Death of God’, humanity has lost a central
reference point for morality. Therefore, new concepts came up to represent
normality – the age of Enlightenment, secularism, rationalism, and the need for
objective morality. While Nietzsche felt that there were some improvements, he
did not see any fundamental differences from these new ideas. Because he
believed that there was a final stage for humanity to reach – the Ubermensch,
who created his own ideas and acted as his own judge. Going back to Kubrick. Each
jump for the progress of humanity is represented by the appearance of the
monolith. With the haunting music from Ligeti, humanity is sent to uncharted
seas of the future.
So what is Kubrick’s view on
technology, after all? While Kubrick celebrated human’s creation of a
technological harmony, he wanted us to think about the limits of that. First,
do we really understand the end point of our invention? It is totally possible
that our technology can exceed the ability of humans, and it should not be
surprising because that is the motivation why we invent all these useful tools
in the first place. With an appreciation of our physical and cognitive limits,
we develop the intelligence to create sophisticated tools that can help us to
solve all the problems. Yet, with a need for control and power, humans want to
assert the power on these ‘machine slaves’. That is the ego, which is derived
from the cognitive abilities, which leads humanity to a ‘will of power’ – the
need to control everything around us, including other human beings. Even half a
century, Kubrick has already foreseen that our creations may outwit us – with
the complex generative functions, emergent properties and stochastic phenomena,
nasty surprises may lurk out and cause negative impact to humanity. Indeed,
Artificial Intelligence – exemplified by HAL in the film - is a contestable
issue, because we are not yet sophisticated enough to understand the nature of
A.I. – should it be considered a machine, a genuine human being, or do we have
to apply a revolutionary framework to accommodate that? Great minds like
Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates have already warned about the implications of A.I.,
and it is pessimistic, though reasonable, to be concerned about the creation of
a more powerful form of human existence by A.I. I suppose most of us, including
Kubrick, probably do not have a definite answer to this question, yet it is
something worth thinking about through cinema.
Second, Kubrick was skeptical about
the notion of the perfect system, a holy grail desired and embraced by many
people. Humanity has always wanted to create all sort of systems that can solve
the problems in our world, and with the belief that technology is reliable,
humans believe some day a perfect system will emerge to make the day. In
Kubrick’s films, there are a lot of ‘perfect systems’ which lead to all sorts
of problems (and hence drama), and he always tried to satirize this folly. In
‘Dr. Strangelove’, the nuclear system eventually led to apocalypse, all because
of human errors and paranoia. In ‘A Clockwork Orange’, the desire to reform
criminals through the Ludovico technique led Alex de Large to become
robot-like. In ‘Barry Lyndon’, the empty customs and rituals failed to lead to
a higher moral existence, it only rendered the people a soulless existence. Kubrick
felt that the perfect system was a dead end because it was derived from humans,
who often did not understand their limits. In fact, the false belief of the
creation of a perfect system only reflected a lack of self-knowledge. Humanity
is always weak in the face of contingency. The reason why classical science advocated
deterministic systems was because we wanted to rationally chain up the cause
and effect, so that we could develop a better understanding and eventually
exert a better control. Yet, there are a lot of aspects in humanity that defies
rational explanation, especially our instinct, unconscious, and our dark sides.
There is no way we can understand that in a rational manner. The failure of
systems in the Kubrick’s film served as a great reminder of all these aspects
there are part of ourselves and cannot deny from. In ‘2001 : A Space Odyssey’, the
system in question is the computer HAL.
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'And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes
into you.' - Nietzsche
After the discovery of a monolith
on the Jupiter, a space with 4 astronauts was sent to there for investigation.
The crew members included Dave Bowman, Poole ,
and 2 astronauts in hibernation. There is a 5th passenger – an
artificial intelligent computer known as HAL. Recognizable by its circular,
intense red eye, HAL controlled everything on the spaceship and it can be
considered the central hub of the spaceship. This is an idea very similar to
the virtual world, internet and cloud computing, and for a generation without
computers, that is very revolutionary – think about Rocky Balboa looking up to
the sky and wonder what ‘cloud computing’ is. What is more is that, aside from
its mechanical appearance, HAL perfectly mimicked a human being. It was
stimulated so spectacularly that it could interact with others as if it was a
genuine human being. It also appeared to show emotions – though the 2
astronauts reasonably doubted that it was stimulated rather than genuine
emotions. All the astronauts treated HAL as if it was a colleague on board,
rather than as a mere machine. What is ironic is that Kubrick reversed the
characters of the astronauts and HAL. The astronauts, who are genuine human
beings, were portrayed coldly and emotionless, while HAL, merely a simulacrum
of human being, seemed to show and express more emotion than the astronauts. Kubrick
was illustrating the mechanical dehumanization of the modern age, which was a
common theme in many of his films. The astronauts became the instrument of the spaceship
and the institution it represented, and to maintain a sense of
‘professionalism’, they had to perform in a rational manner and control their
emotions. Of course, the fact that HAL was controlling everything also
suggested that there was an intense surveillance (think of Foucault's and Bentham's ideas) in the spaceship, and the
astronauts would not be allowed to show their true feelings, such as fear and
stress, when they were doing their jobs.
'I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is
all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do. ' -HAL
HAL was considered a perfect system
by the characters in the film. Because, according to record, this type of
computer has never committed a single mistake. Yet, the creators have missed a
critical factor. The very fact that HAL was mimicking humans meant that it
would get all the characteristics –good and bad- from humanity, and of course
we could not take the raisins without taking the bun. While HAL has super
intelligent abilities and a brilliant stimulation of human beings, it consists
of all the dark sides of humanity – fear, jealousy, paranoia, and desperation
for control and mastery of its surroundings. If there is one single reason for
HAL’s eventual demise, to quote Nietzsche, that is because HAL is human, all
too human.
When the journey went on, HAL
started to show subtle problems. First, it sent a wrong message of reporting an
antenna was broken. While Bowman and Poole
checked out that nothing was wrong, they were quite puzzled by HAL’s mistake,
because this type of computer was 100% reliable. This is indeed a point very
relevant to modern audience, because we often rely too much on technology, and
place excess confidence on our creation. Because of that we literally switch
off our thinking and become less vigilant to contingencies. In an age that
encourages backing up of files from the computer, we should totally appreciate
this idea. The second mistake is quite subtle, and it is also contentious among
the audience. During a game of chess, HAL gave a checkmate to Poole ,
and it deliberately spelt it out to Poole
every moves that would lead to his defeat. What is fascinating is that HAL,
allegedly having 100% accuracy, has spelt out a wrong move in the middle. There
are 2 different schools of thoughts about this scene. The first one is to say
that this further illustrates that HAL’s programming was getting into problem.
Yet a more chilling interpretation was that HAL said that deliberately, to see
whether Poole discovered its mistake or not. If
Poole assumed that HAL had all the correct
moves, then that suggested Poole still trusted
HAL tremendously. HAL used this psychological tactic to test if Poole was suspicious of itself. Indeed, when HAL decided
it has to kill the astronauts, he went after Poole
first. From this, it was evident that HAL was having some crazy problems in its
programming, and soon there would be a breaking point.
'There isn't a single aspect of ship operations that isn't
under his control. ' - Poole
Bowman and Poole
started to have some gut feeling that something funny was going on with HAL.
Taking caution for eavesdropping, they switched off all the audio apparatus,
they discussed about their concerns. Yet, they were not aware that HAL had the
ability of lip-reading, so it grasped the astronaut’s idea of disconnecting it,
or in a sense, ‘kill’ it. This scenario strikes a chord with modern audience,
as the emergent properties and hidden functions of technology are often inaccessible
to us, and Kubrick was challenging us – do we really understand our technology
and machines, the artifacts we are so proud of creating?
'I can see you're really upset about this.' - HAL
With a survival instinct, HAL
decided to make the first move. It tricked Poole
and sent him out to space, literally killing him (not counting his reappearance
in the so-called sequels.) Next, it disconnected the life support of the
hibernation chambers, and murdered the 2 astronauts in a quiet and chilling
manner. Bowman, soon realizing that he was alone, knew that it was a zero-sum
game between him and HAL. The final showdown between Man and Machine is
inevitable.
'Open the pod bay doors, HAL. ' - Bowman
'I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that. ' - HAL
...
'Alright, HAL. I'll go in through the emergency airlock.' - Bowman
...
'Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore.
Goodbye.' - HAL
With the now famous quote ‘Open the
pod bay doors, HAL!’, Bowman gave the ultimatum to HAL. The computer was not willing
to co-operate. Situating at the other part of the spaceship, Bowman decided he
could only re-enter the control room through the emergency airlock. Because he
did not have the safety equipment, there was a significant chance he would suffocate
and die. Yet, Kubrick affirmed the value of humanity in the face of challenge
and danger, and showed Bowman’s tremendous courage. Bowman decided to take
chances and shot himself through the emergency airlock in a memorable scene. This
was an outcome HAL would not be able to compute – because it would likely
assume that Bowman would not attempt that due to the threat of death. The
computer would likely map out and weigh all the possible pathways, and this
humanistic choice – a gamble at the risk of self-destruction was something it
could never comprehend. Yet, taking chances in the face of danger and
uncertainly is what makes us human, and the aspect that distinguishes us from a
cold and calculating machine. Sometimes, that may turn out to be a foolish
decision, yet once in a while, the outcome is a surprise and something we
cannot predict in a rational manner. Even in the midst of technology and
machines, Kubrick still wanted to show us the positive sides that have led us
to become one of the most successful species on our planet.
'I've
still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. ' - HAL
When I first watched ‘2001’, I felt
that the film was about technology and space travel. Yet, the more I think
about that, I start to have the feeling that his films are not merely about
machines or technology, as they may appear on the surface. Kubrick’s films are
fundamentally about humans, unlike some detractors who say his films are
misanthropic or so on. Kubrick has adopted an innovative and lateral approach
to achieve that. He illustrated something impersonal and inhuman, to lead us to
explore the fundamental characteristics of humanity. Through these satirical
and often disturbing portrayals, we start to construct the essences of being
human. HAL, though being a computer, can be considered a doppelganger of humanity.
It is a reflection of ourselves, and it represent our achievement and what we
will soon become. By looking at HAL, we have a mirror put up to ourselves, and
we can therefore have our opinions to the question of that makes us human.
'I
can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. ' - HAL
After regaining control of the
spaceship, Bowman has to make the hard decision – to disconnect HAL once and
for all. Through the various pleading and begging, HAL tried to prevent its own
destruction, yet bowman was firm on this. Indeed, the scene is quite a heart
breaking scene, because I did believe HAL was expressing genuine fear of death,
unlike some theories saying that it was just pretending. It was likely this
experience that has inspired Bowman to later think about his own life and to confront
the possibility of death in the last section of the film. Bowman has destroyed
HAL, a sublimation of human’s technology and achievement. It is an ironic
outcome because in order to win in the struggle, Man has to negate something
that originates from nowhere but himself, leading to a complete dehumanization.
Yet, both Kubrick and Nietzsche have tried to convince us that it is not a
pessimistic point of view. Because only when we are aware that we have reached
the limit of our era, we are ready to enter a new frontier. Bowman has become
the ‘Last Man’ of humanity, and he would soon discover, not only more about
himself, but also the transformation he would soon become.
(To be continued.)
by Ed Law
Film Analysis
