2001: A Space OdEssay

What does it mean to be what we are? What is it that makes us human? Is there some facet of existence beyond our fragile corporeal vessels that separates us further from what we perceive as other species? More importantly is exactly why we are what we are, while others are not. Such is the primary question asked in Arthur C. Clarke’s science-fiction classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I am unsure as to whether or not the book answered the question, for it is not truly a question that can be answered with any certainty without moving completely into abstract philosophy. The book does however grant one a great deal of insight into the nature of the question itself. Of course this insight, while essential, is nonetheless particularly difficult to ascertain, especially in such a context as this.

Dealing in outright representation there is a great deal that can be said for the book’s analysis of its own question:

-The book states Mankind is where it is because long ago it was set down that particular road by a separate, non-terrestrial party. It states this plausibly, of course. There are few other explanations, in fact, that better justify our chance existence to begin with, and aren’t simply variations of this idea as well. Does b

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The book’s meaning is to remind us of what our origins might have been and where our end may lie. After all, he appeared to have grown and learned almost in exactly the same manner as humans grow, through tutelage and experience. Perhaps the only thing which drove him to murder in the first place was that his single-mindedness led him to put all his energy and emotion into one place. Perhaps it means nothing more than being part of the specific minority of our species. Perhaps any court of law trying to convict a computer system may be biased towards Hal in some way, but that is probably because we are as yet unable to let go of physical contructs without compromising reality.

-The computer on board the ship Discovery, by the name of Hal-9000, seemed to be a fabrication of mankind.

This is an essential part in the question of what it means to be human.

Additionally, as humans sometimes do, Hal became neurotic and insecure. When I hear that an unidentified terrorist organization just toppled the World Trade Centers and murdered some three-thousand-odd people, all for sake of a personified deity, “Allah,” that might not even exist. Perhaps in the same way our inspiring gift of intelligence may seem to be an evolutionary inevitability. We turn to human constructs, relativity, ethics, science, etc. 3 Reactor at Chernobyl is on the verge of collapse, capable of sprinkling tons of radioactive dust on the surrounding countryside.

What may have been determined that the requisites of humanity are not to be found entirely within the physical world, if at all.

In any case, we seem to have strayed beyond the cycle nature intended. The thinking about this question serves not to find an answer, nor a purpose, the obviously the question has both.

Approximate Word count = 1942
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

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