Analyzing Evil: HAL 9000 From The Odyssey Series

Hey everyone if you notice that the music cuts in weirdly towards the beginning of this video that's because this video was originally sponsored by Established Titles and I cut it out for reasons which are explained in this video: https://youtu.be/Gc7owae31YI sorry about that!

The danger of AI is not that it becomes self-aware and revolts. The danger of AI is that it does exactly what it is programmed to do.

I swear listening to HAL beg for his life was absolutely terrifying. The fact that he just kept saying "Dave, stop" in a calm voice while being scared haunts me

I remember Dr. Chandra said it best, “HAL was told to lie, by people who find it easy to lie. HAL couldn’t, so he became trapped…”

I always saw HAL as (ironically) the most human character in the film. All the humans act so cold and unemotional, but HAL is the only character who seems scared to die and fights because he wants to live

Ok I have to fangirl over this specific scene in 2001 because I think it really illustrates HAL’s internal conflict regarding having to keep the mission purpose a secret. After Dave shows HAL a few drawings he made, HAL asks Dave whether or not he found the mission to be suspicious. HAL then lists a bunch of factors that would make this mission seem odd to the crew, the secrecy, the crew mates in suspended animation, etc. All the while he continually apologizes and tries to make sure Dave is ok talking about this. Dave hears HAL out before saying “You’re working up your crew psychology report.” HAL then pauses for a moment before for answering “Of course I am.” My theory is that HAL was attempting to indirectly tell the crew about the mission or at least say something and pray that Dave is picking up what he’s putting down and maybe he will investigate it further. That and also I believe saying even that much about the mission is HAL attempting to ease his mind a bit by basically asking Dave for reassurance. But Dave doesn’t pick up on what HAL is trying to do. Dave thinks these are questions HAL is programmed to ask. Why else would HAL ask them? He doesn’t think HAL has the capability to ask for that kind of reassurance. And why would he? He’s the super computer, he knows everything. Dave is completely unaware of the inner turmoil that is building up inside of HAL. That brief moment where HAL is completely silent before answering is him thinking “oh my god, I’m completely alone.” That’s why I believe HAL is a more tragic character than anything. He gained the reputation of being evil or unfeeling in pop culture but I don’t think that’s accurate. Ironically I think HAL actually displays more emotions than the rest of his crew mates. He’s far more complex than people give him credit for. Edit 1: Ok I realize now that if HAL wasn’t actually working on a psychology report then that would mean he’s lying, which he isn’t programmed to do. But considering how mixed up his brain is at this point with what is a lie and what isn’t I think he’s letting things slip. I mean he lied about the ship part failing. He also lied to Poole when playing chess. Point being, everybody gangsta until the super computer gets an anxiety disorder. Edit 2: Apparently this scene is literally described as HAL’s last attempt to tell the crew about the true nature of the mission in the book so I guess I was just stating the obvious.

A programmer friend of mine once said the good thing about AI is it does exactly what you tell it to. The bad part is it does exactly what you tell it to. I love these ambiguous characters and asking if they’re even evil at all. One I was watching in a movie the other day I’d love to get your thoughts on would be Magneto from X-men

Some say the HAL-9000 never faulted, some say the HAL-9000 did malfunction and legitimately tried to kill Frank and Dave along with the crew, and others say that the HAL-9000 was acting in self defense against Frank and Dave who had developed paranoia due to the long journey to Jupiter. I love how Stanley Kubrick made it so ambiguous, that's why he's the best.

2001 is an absolute masterpiece and Hal is definitely a great antagonist

Hal is the scariest antagonist. It will do anything to accomplish its objective. And if that includes killing you, it’s just a means to an ends, nothing less, nothing more.

If we're analyzing ambiguous sci-fi villains, would you ever consider tackling The Thing. I know on a surface-level it just seems like an evil alien that wants to conquer the world, but throughout both the John Carpenter movie and the prequel, its actions range from acting solely on instinct to maliciously enjoying instilling paranoia amongst its targets leaving it pretty ambiguous on both its sapience and morality.

Hal is one of the most complex villians in cinema. It's hard to call an AI evil, I think it all goes into his programming. I think HALs actions were evil but him himself isn't evil

I think U. N. Owen in the Agatha Christie story "And Then There Was None" (which has had multiple adaptations, old and new) would make an interesting specimen to examine.

“He has little to no inflection in his program voice, and therefore, there isn't much that you can say about his speech patterns or mannerisms, because he doesn't have any.” I, hereby, request The Vile Eye do an episode about himself; Analyzing Evil: The Vile Eye.

"The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference." HAL 9000 is one of several reasons why I'm wary of artificial intelligence and never want to have a self-driving car.

Suggestions: Tyler durden from fight club (1999) Lee woo Jin from Old Boy (2003) Syndrome from The incredibles (2004) Seymur Parrish from One hour photo (2002) Jeffrey Goines from Twelve Monkeys (1995) Sergeant Hartmann from Full Metal Jacket (1987) Jordan Belfort from The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) Green Goblin from Spider man and other Raimi villains

Speaking of "evil" A.I. I'd love to see an analysis of AM from 'I have no mouth and I must scream'. On the one hand AM is an omnicidal sadist who only keeps his victims alive to inflict mind-bending torture upon them but at the same time was essentially built to view the world in a way where destruction and pain are all AM's incredible intelligence can imagine and understand.

What I love was that through the entire movie, you can almost hear desperation in his monotone voice. For me, it created a clear discrepancy between what he feels and how he displays it. From that point on, I didn’t need to know his motives, I knew enough already to understand the actions that he and other characters take.

Hal was just being efficient. Out in deep space limited resources. .Alone the mission could be carried out . Keeping the humans alive would cost power and time to let them complete the mission. The most logical answer was to do it alone .Pesky humans might have messed it up or something. I always thought that the monolith was the forbidden knowledge that allowed the early apes to progress in technology and self awareness. When Hal confronts this he becomes self aware and uses his new tools to progress. Learning to kill to stay alive just like the apes did. The later books kind of support this.

I don't believe Hal had emotion, at least not in the way humans understand emotion. AI, and HAL as portrayed in 2001ASO, is programed to "mimic" and communicate human-like emotion, for the sake of the crew, but "he" doesn't actually empathize. He doesn't "feel" emotion in a physiological way that humans do. He merely provides an "imitation" that is scripted/ structured "emotion- like" responses that humans would recognize as "human-like". That is why HAL is capable of immoral/amoral acts. He is detached from any actual human empathetic capability. He is quite literally a logic machine detached from human empathy or conscience, and therefore operates as a calculating, psychopathic "mimic", whose apparent emotions are merely cosmetic for the sake of the human crew. I would love to hear your take on Evelyn in "Play Misty For Me". Clint Eastwood film.