2001 A Space Odyssey

In 1982 Ridley Scott’s movie “Blade Runner” was quietly released and received mixed reviews7. As time passed the movie’s fan base expanded and today, many consider it to be one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time. Numerous people consider it Harrison Ford’s greatest acting role, which, considering the competition consisting of Han Solo and Indiana Jones, is no small feat. Originally, critics missed or were confused by the philosophical questions the movie posed but as more people saw it, the movie’s brilliance was gradually realized. The questions Blade Runner posed about the future of computer intelligence were far ahead of their time. A major issue of the movie is that, if AI ever became

One example of this is when the stock market index had a quick, but massive crash, losing nearly one trillion dollars, which is “a prime example of the dangers of Artificial Intelligence manipulating stock” (Loubriel). Although human stockbrokers managed to shut down the system and prevent a complete economical crash, once superintelligence is achieved, there will be no way to terminate any AI processes. As soon as self-driving cars exceed the point of human intelligence, people will be completely under the control of their vehicle and will no longer be able to make decisions while driving. In addition, Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at the University of Oxford declared that “[humans] should not be confident in [their] ability to keep a superintelligent genie locked up in its bottle forever” (Bostrom). He emphasized the idea that once superintelligence takes over every piece of technology, it is competent enough to break out of the secure environment that has been created for it. Until self-driving cars are below the standards of being super intelligent, humans are still dominating every vehicle’s decisions. The consequences could be disastrous if they go out of control. Furthermore, physicist Louis Del Monte recently discovered that “[robots] are also learning

Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google making us stupid?” (2008) demonstrates on how the complex search engine can drastically change individuals reading habits. Google has been a leading search engine for well over the past decade, and continues to break down and distribute information so simple that a Neanderthal could understand. Carr has an uncanny way of bringing his point across by the use of symbolic pop culture refrerences that reinforce his unique way of swaying the reader. Carr’s reference to “Space Odyssey” portrays how Google can change our way of thinking, without actually noticing anything at all. Carr notes “ My mind isin’t going—so far as I can tell---but it’s changing” (Carr, 2008, P. 89) To further understand this revelation, Carr documents his conversations with notable professors in regards to how the so called “Information age” is forever changing our way of how we perceive and decode information

Conflict, spanning simply from man versus man, to more complex issues such as man versus technology, overwhelmingly dominate modern science fiction films. Directors explore dark issues that humanity collectively faces with--through their portrayal of dystopian societies, advanced technology, and extraterrestrial life--potential answers based upon their own interpretation of the “unanswered.” In 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick examines the relationship between the human race and technology, or rather the blurred line between technology and man. Kubrick constructs HAL , an advanced computer system, that holds crucial and vital responsibilities regarding the space shuttle operations on the spacecraft. Though HAL conforms to carry out

First I will be giving a brief synopysis of 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick. This movie start off somewhere millions of years ago. Where ape like creatures who could be the start of humans are seen in their natural habitat doing what they would naturally be doing. Then they come across something unusual a black structure known as a monolith, upon coming across this monolith the ape starts to change and this is when the the first sign of tool usage. By one ape being curious and finding the remaining bones of an animal and then starts using the bones as tools, starting to hit things with it which then set them apart from others. Here is where evolution appears and the change of men is seen. As time passes to the future, the movie

More examples of movies within the 50s and 60s include When Worlds Collide and the cult classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. Rather than being influenced by the socio-political occurrences of the time, these films were mostly focusing more on the scientific possibilities that had appeared throughout the course of the Space Race. A quick synopsis of When Worlds Collide can be easily described as, “Science wielded by a heroic scientist confronts a catastrophe” . Despite the movie also including a possible doomsday scenario comparable to the nuclear scare present during the 1950s, When Worlds Collide provides us with the prospect of space travel and colonization of other planets. The film’s plot follows the story of Pilot David Randall and others as

Artificial intelligence is undoubtedly a widely debated topic in today’s society. Many groups suggest that it could soon enslave humanity, while others proposing that it’s harmless and only here to make our lives better. Mary Shelley’s 1818 Gothic text, Frankenstein, recounts the story of an ambitious, young scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who is intrigued by alchemy and natural philosophy. Victor becomes interested with these subjects after beginning at Ingolstadt and eventually executes experiments that bring the dead back to life. He creates a creature who is outcast by society, which provokes it to vow revenge on its creator. The creature sequentially kills everybody that Victor loves and ruins his life (Shelley). Frankenstein has the indisputable theme of creating artificial intelligence that turns bad, much like James Cameron’s 1984 film, The Terminator. In Cameron’s film, humanity creates an artificially intelligent program known as Skynet, which becomes completely cognizant and overthrows the world by initiating a nuclear holocaust. In the aftermath, a group of survivors create a resistance that attempts to destroy the program; however, they are met with Skynet’s cyborg army. Skynet sends a terminator, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, back in time to destroy Sarah Connor before her son, the leader of the resistance, is born. Kyle Reese is then sent after the terminator and, in conclusion, saves Sarah and destroys the terminator (Terminator). This movie and text are closely related in the sense that a character from either the book or motion picture relate to a character in the alternative.

The Dawn of Man. Four simple words introduced what is remarked as one of the greatest films of all time. There is no spoken dialogue within the first 25 minutes and the last 23 minutes of the film. “2001: A Space Odyssey” is an ambiguous film. The broad range of audience captures various interpretations of the film. The main theme seems to be about the evolutionary process of mankind interwoven with elements of a higher or extraterrestrial entity guiding this evolution. There are some film theories that suggest this movie was all propaganda used in conjunction with the space race that occurred during World War 2. Some even go as far as to say that the same set used in “2001: A Space Odyssey” was used to fake the moon landing of 1969. However, theories with more evidence suggest that the iconic monolith doesn’t represent aliens or “God”, but instead represents the cinema screen of which we are viewing. The artistic importance of “2001: A Space Odyssey” is derived from its ability procure various conclusions.

Along with movies, I have included television series, short cartoons, and some unclassified movies where the presence of AI is showcased. Many of them depict a ‘mindless’ AI, whereas in many, AI plays an important role in the movie. Many were a great success, some of them were taken as ‘cult classics’ in domestic and foreign lands, but many did not achieve the cinematic success. In all of them, the most important thing which is shown is how the agents’ mind works and the results of combining AI into human societies, a glimpse has been shown about how the remaining of the society views them.

2001: A space Odyssey is a science fiction novel set in the futuristic setting of 2001. In the novel humans were able to achieve interplanetary travel, and colonization of planets in the local galaxy. This advancement is shown to be caused by a mysterious monolith, which appears millions of years ago when mankind had not yet developed intelligence. The book spans across three different point of views: Moon-watcher, Dr. Heywood Floyd and David Bowman. Moon-watcher is the man ape who discovered the monolith and experienced a neurological rewrite leading toward the invention of tools. Dr. Heywood Floyd is a man from Earth tasked with analyzing an anomaly on the moon, which turns out to be a second monolith. David Bowman is a man on a mission to

Stanley Kubrick directed and produced “2001: A Space Odyssey” which to this date is the world’s most greatest and influential film of all time. The film was mainly inspired by a short story named “The sentinel” by Arthur C. Clarke who also did the screenplay with Kubrick on 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film debuted on April 2, 1968 and drew the most optimistic predictions off futurists to map out a then- believable scenario of 21st-century space travel (Tate, Karl.) Stanley Kubrick probably chose to use color on the film rather than the normal black and white during the time to show the atmosphere of space in its true form. The color makes the planets of Earth and Jupiter look more realistic than it would have with a darker contrast in the film.

In television and film, we see the rise of the similar theme of a once reliable and seemingly harmless machine bringing the earth and mankind to the bottom of the hearty. Films like The Omega Man(1971) and television shows like Star Trek(1966-1969) and The Twilight Zone(1959-1964) have all tackled the similar issue of evil artificial intelligence. With the amount of revenue this theme collected, it became a crutch in the entertainment industry as it’s appeal to fear would rake in large

2001: A Space Odyssey is just that: a long wandering voyage of the body and mind. Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clark collaborated brilliantly. In examining both works, the film and the novel, there are certainly differences, yet the theme and overall idea coincide thoroughly. That this was made in the 1960's augments both accomplishments. The visuals, seen in 2004, are still captivating. What they must've seemed like in 1968! I flout those who received this movie poorly in those days. Would I have received it as well without having a preconceived idea of its greatness? I can only hope I would have known what I was watching.

If robots take our jobs, people won’t have to work as much, nevertheless, this creates an urgency to distribute our assets evenly. It is not impossible for a rich individual, to disband the workers only to utilize AI as free labour. A situation like this, would lead to everyone but the wealthy owner to vanish, like an animal species being eradicated by natural selection. Thus, the biggest risk of AI could subsequently depend on the human factor. Hence, the only valid disadvantage of AI, might in fact be ourselves, our own greed. If people restrain from selfishly exploiting the power of AI, the advantages will allow society and humanity to grow even further. Therefore, with the highest probability, AI will only make our lives

These are just a few examples of the many facets of society artificial intelligence is submerged in. Furthermore, additional refining of artificial intelligence is predicted to bestow many benefits: “… AI can be used to fundamentally rethink how we solve the world's problems and has the potential to greatly improve health care, education, poverty, and security” (Viglione and Deputy). Clearly, advancements in artificial intelligence would stimulate the economy. Unfortunately, AI isn’t the solution to all of our problems. “Statistics say that 47% of all employment opportunities will be occupied by machines within the next two decades” (Stark). Every technological revolution comes with its costs, typically in the form of lost jobs, but that doesn’t mean we should