Aaron Straker
12/12/2012
Research Paper
The Perils Of Artificial Intelligence in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Prometheus
Throughout history of film robots
have been portrayed many different ways. Some show promise from robots while others
show peril. Ranging from the simple
depiction of a robot from the movie Terminator,
where the robot only goes around shooting people and has zero people
skills. Terminator is a prime example of
peril from the existence of robots. Or a
more complex depiction from a movie called I
Robot, where the robot is able to have a conversation with humans and
display many emotions. Both of the
movies being compared the robots have AI which stands for artificial
intelligence. This plays an important
role in many films with robots. This newspaper article explains AI “Artificial
Intelligence is a computer of robot whose processing ability is capable, swift
and complex enough to copy the intelligence of human beings”(DeNardo). 2001: A Space Odyssey is about a crew in
space on a mission, it came out in 1968 when there wasn’t an abundance of
special effects in the movie business.
They have a robot named HAL 9000 helping them. HAL 9000 is a robot but you only hear his
voice. He isn’t like David who actually
has a body. While they are in space HAL
9000 starts to act a bit differently and that’s when the movie really
starts. This is better worded here from
an article on space villains “You almost feel sad when that last flicker of red
light goes out of HAL’s “eye” near the ending of Stanley Kubrick’s operatic
space adventure, but the computer with the relaxing voice is a cruel killing
machine when threatened. More human than the astronauts, HAL brags a terrifying
combo of dueling logical and emotional tendencies. – Jeff Labrecque”(Dalton). Prometheus is a movie about a crew in space
trying to find their creators. They
think the people who created humans are engineers on a certain planet. In this movie the audience knows David is a robot. He watches all the crew members while there
in hyper sleep in the beginning of Prometheus.
He went on with his daily routines for many years till the day they woke
up; while they were asleep he took care of everything on the ship. A movie critic explains it better here “The
cast includes Charlize Theron as a deep-pocketed corporate heavy from a company
whose name may ring bells for Alien aficionados, Michael Fassbender as the
crew's resident is-he-or-isn't-he-an-android (cue comparisons to Ian Holm's
Ash)”(Nashawaty). There isn’t a big
reveal like in another movie called Alien with the character Ash. They eventually find the planet and begin
their work but it seems like David has a hidden agenda and seems to be working
against certain crew members. Here is an
example of David’s character later in the film “You must feel like your God
left you, he mocks her, showing a very human sadistic streak”(Doherty). In Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and
Prometheus by Ridley Scott and several scholarly sources, the future of
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology may be fraught with danger; these films
dramatize the struggle between humans and intelligent machines and challenge
the view that humans and robots can peacefully co-exist.
HAL
9000 is represented in the film as just a voice. A description on HAL 9000, “2001: A Space Odyssey famously
introduces HAL-9000, an artificial intelligence that takes the crew members to
the mysterious object near one of the
moons of the planet Saturn.”(DeNardo). When he speaks in scenes you’ll see a red dot
and a circle. The technology in 2001 A Space Odyssey shows both promise
and peril. In the beginning it’s shown
the many things that HAL 9000 can do.
But later the peril begins when HAL 9000 starts behaving badly. For example, turning off the crew members in
hyper sleep (thus killing them), killing a crew member in space, and not letting
Dave come back on the ship. The
technology of HAL 9000 in 2001 A Space
Odyssey is complex. He’s able to see
every crew member on the ship, able to play and defeat a crew member in a game
of chess, and has control of the ships doors.
For example the scene in 2001 where HAL refuses to let Dave back on the
ship.(2001) Unlike HAL 9000, David from Prometheus has a body. Even though these two movies are from
different times, these robots still have certain similarities. The article uses the actors name instead of
David “Fassbender is perfection as a super-intelligent, slightly prideful
android -- he could possibly be a faraway relative to the HAL 9000 in "2001: A Space Odyssey."(Grierson) David is depicted as an intelligent robot that
is able to do things that humans do. Due
to his artificial intelligence like HAL 9000; maybe even better at times, David
is also depicted as having a bit of emotion and showing a bit of anger at
times. The view of technology shows
peril through David’s actions. In the
beginning it shows all that they’ve been able to accomplish due to technology. For example find the planet with the
engineers, that they think created humans.
On the ship there’s a machine that’ll do surgery and operations on
you. This is used later in the movie because
of David’s actions of infecting a crew member.
Also David’s immortality as stated by another character he’ll never die.(Prometheus) He doesn’t grow old like humans. The tech in Prometheus is very complex from when they were in the caves, they
had devices that check everywhere in the cave to see if they were any living
organisms. They also had hyper sleep for the crew members along the same lines to
2001 A Space Odyssey.
In one scene in Prometheus
David speaks to another crew member.
He’s speaking to the crew member about how far he will go to reach his
goal. The crew member says he’ll do
everything and anything. David asks the
crew member if he wants a glass of wine, the crew member says yes. Before David gives this crew member the glass
of wine he dips his finger into the wine.(Prometheus) Doesn’t sound too bad but before this scene
David had an unknown alien liquid on his finger, in this scene the audience is
supposed to be shocked because David is supposed to be helping, but he just
infected a crew member with an unknown alien fluid. This crew member later on had intercourse
with another crew member. This led to
her also getting infected and pregnant with an alien baby. What is even more shocking is that she’s able
to survive. But David’s reaction to
survival is also shocking to the audience.
As an illustration “I didn’t think you had it in you,” smiles David, amazed
by her “extraordinary survival instinct.”(Doherty). David also shows a bit of dark humor mocking
her about her alien pregnancy. In one
scene in 2001 A Space Odyssey a crew
member named Dave is trying to get back on board. He calls HAL multiple times to open the
doors. Eventually HAL answers saying
affirmative Dave I read you. Dave asks
HAL to open the doors again, but HAL tells Dave that he can’t do that. Dave pretends to be confused by HAL’s actions,
until says that he can read lips and found out that Dave and another crew
member were trying to shut him down. For
instance “Remember the scene from ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' when the evil Hal
figures out the crew members want to disconnect him by reading their lips?”(Headlam) The audience is supposed to be shocked by this
shocked in this scene. HAL 9000 seemed
perfect for the job earlier in the movie.
Earlier in the film it was shown all of the good things that HAL could
do to help the crew on their mission.
But with this power that HAL has is very dangerous if something sets him
off. To take a case in point “That
reminded me of the moment in the novel "2001" when HAL, after figuring out the astronauts had doubts
about him, decides to kill them.”(Seabrook)
2001 A Space Odyssey
showed HAL’s artificial intelligence in many ways. Artificial Intelligence is for example “It’s
a machine's ability to think”. (Snyder 33)
HAL showed his ability to think throughout 2001in addition David showed this in Prometheus. With the concept
of Artificial Intelligence there is strong AI and weak AI. For instance this is strong AI “Strong AI is
a computer system that actively shows consciousness, a machine that has reasoning
skills and can solve problems by itself.” (Snyder 33) However
weak AI is “Weak AI suggests that the benefits of artificial intelligence is to
help in exploring human knowledge through the development of computer models.” (Bendele 186)
David from Prometheus has a
body whereas HAL from 2001 doesn’t. Specifically here’s an example “The human
brain may have large mass of computational power, but it develops slowly, while
computational technology is developing quickly enough that Kurzweil stated that
by 2029 there’ll be thoughtful artificial intelligence, and bodiless beings by
2099.” (Kurzweil 247) During the film
HAL 9000 plays a crew member in a game of chess. But obviously in 2001 A Space Odyssey the strong
AI helped him win. Like stated earlier
AI is a machines ability to think.
This is shown in 2001 A Space
Odyssey where HAL 9000 plays a crew member in chess. For example “Many science-fiction stories
portray AI beings that not only show human intelligence, but surpass it, often
making it a threat to human existence”(DeNardo). This is also how HAL 9000 was able to defeat
the crew member in the chess game, leaving the crew member even surprised
because he didn’t even realize that he had lost the game. David showed his AI in a different way, when
he was able to break down an alien language to wake up the engineer.
2001 A Space Odyssey
showed both promise and peril. It’s
mainly showed peril at the end due to HALs actions. The film starts off somewhat promising but
the thought of HAL 9000 making is there.
Earlier in the movie HAL 9000 is interviewed by someone and the person
asks about error. HAL 9000 says something along the lines that’s not in his
program. When the interview is finished
the person who interviewed HAL 9000 says something along the lines seems like
HAL 9000 has a bit of an attitude. The
film maker Stanley Kubrick made HAL 9000 very subtle. He’s just a red dot and has a cold
emotionless voice. Moments when he
speaks you’ll simply see the red dot while hearing his voice. This creates suspense because you never see
what he’s doing or planning to do, since his voice and the red dot are his only
presence throughout the movie. The movie
was created in 1968 and they didn’t have an abundance of special effects which
helped create suspense. By contrast Prometheus starts off promising with
David but by the end it changes into peril. David’s portrayal is different from
HAL 9000 portrayal even though they both are artificial intelligences. David actually has a body. While HAL 9000’s portrayal is more subtle,
David’s seems to be subtle and severe.
David’s portrayal isn’t as suspenseful as HAL 9000 because you see the
actor on the screen and what he’s doing.
But while David’s portrayal isn’t as suspenseful, it’s far more shocking. Another thing that made David’s portrayal
more shocking is special effects.
Throughout the film you see David doing his own thing, such as bringing
one of the alien capsules back on the ship and infecting a crew member with the
alien liquid, also the crew member getting impregnated with an alien baby. The damage that David causes is far more
severe. Although HAL does kill a crew
member in space, turn off the pods if the people in hyper sleep and refuse to
let David back on the ship. Granted what
HAL does is bad likewise but David is far worse. David broke down the alien language which
awoke the engineer from it’s rest. The engineers
mission was to destroy the earth and all human beings.(Prometheus) Even though the engineer was stopped, because
of David’s actions the human race could of actually ceased to exist.
As
a result you can see how hard it can be can humans and robots to coexist. Evidence has been shown that robots or developing
faster than humans. By David and HAL are
both able to outwit humans. David
infecting the crew member similarly with HAL finding out the crew members plans. Granted it is true that David and HAL both
have benefits to the teams they work for.
David watched the crew members while they were in hyper sleep and was
able to break down alien languages, even though that didn’t turn out to
good. HAL made sure everything was in
check keeping the crew members safe. To
sum it up are both two intelligent robots who possess strong AI which have
their benefits and drawbacks.
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