# Quote — Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey

> Hal (for Heuristically programmed Algorithmic computer, no less) was a masterwork of the third computer breakthrough. These seemed to occur at intervals of twenty years, and the thought that another one was now imminent already worried a great many people. The first had been in the 1940s, when the long-obsolete vacuum tube had made possible such clumsy, high-speed morons as ENIAC and its successors. Then, in the 1960s, solid-state microelectronics had been perfected. With its advent, it was clear that artificial intelligences at least as powerful as Man's need be no larger than office desks…In the 1980s, Minsky and Good had shown how neural networks could be generated automatically — self replicated — in accordance with any arbitrary learning program. Artificial brains could be grown by a process strikingly analogous to the development of a human brain.

- Author: [Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md)
- Book: [2001: A Space Odyssey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/2001-a-space-odyssey.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(novel)#III._Between_Planets) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/2001-a-space-odyssey/hal-for-heuristically

## More from this book

> Could any technology, no matter how advanced, bridge the awful gulf what lay between the Solar System and the nearest alien sun? Many scientists flatly denied the possibility.
>
> A vocal minority refused to agree. Even if it took centuries to travel from star to star, they contended, this might be no obstacle to sufficiently determined explorers…In any event, why should one assume that all intelligent species were as short-lived as Man? There might be creatures in the universe to whom a thousand-year voyage would present nothing worse than slight boredom.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/2001-a-space-odyssey/could-any-technology.md)

> Fifty years ago, Bowman would have been considered a specialist in applied astronomy, cybernetics, and space propulsion systems — yet he was prone to deny, with genuine indignation, that he was a specialist at all. Bowman had never found it possible to focus his interest exclusively on any subject; despite the dark warnings of his instructors, he had insisted on taking his Master's degree in General Astronautics — a course with a vague and woolly syllabus, designed for those whose IQs were in the low 130s and who would never reach the top ranks of their profession.
>
> His decision had been right; that very refusal to specialize had made him uniquely qualified for his present task.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/2001-a-space-odyssey/fifty-years-ago.md)

> Although Bowman was nominal Captain on this phase of the mission, no outside observer could have deduced the fact. He and Poole switched roles, rank, and responsibilities completely every twelve hours. This kept them both at peak training, minimized the chances of friction, and helped toward the goal of 100 percent redundancy.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/2001-a-space-odyssey/although-bowman-was.md)