On Oct 7, 2011 12:44 AM, "Michael Orlitzky" <michael@orlitzky.com> wrote:
>
> On 10/06/2011 11:39 PM, Michael Mol wrote:
> >
> >>> HAL... shudder.
> >>>
> >>
> >> Let's not get started on hal.  Pardon me while I go pray to the
> > porcelain gods.  :/
> >
> > I'm really sorry, but I missed that show. I was in Ubuntu-land learning
> > not to tweak system behaviors.  WTF was the deal with HAL? What was it
> > supposed to do? Why didn't it work?
> >
>
> From the Wikipedia page,
>
>  HAL in [Linux]:
>
>  HAL became operational in Urbana, Illinois at the HAL Plant at the
>  University of Illinois, where the ILLIAC computers were assembled.
>  The film states that this occurred in 1992, while the book gives 1997
>  as HAL's birthyear. In [Linux], HAL begins to malfunction in subtle
>  ways, and as a result, the decision is made to shut HAL down in order
>  to prevent more serious malfunctions. The sequence of events and
>  manner in which HAL is shut down differs between the novel and film
>  versions of the story.

Heh. I doubt Mr. Clark was imagining hardware abstractions while he was exploring AI malfunction. :)