2001: A Space Odyssey has fascinated me since I first saw it
back in 1968. I didn't understand it and I've tried to gain a better
understanding ever since. There were times when I thought I understood it, then
later realized that there was more to the film than I had thought.
I want to explore one aspect of the film in this post. It is
an idea that has floated about in my head for many years and I really don't
know if I read it somewhere, or came up with it on my own.
The thrust of the story is the evolution of man from ape-man
to starchild. I would expect that with Kubrick and Clarke would have everything
in the movie relate to that in some way.
What bothered me about the sequence on the Discovery that
involves the astronauts and HAL is that it doesn't seem to relate. It felt to
me as if it were merely a bit of story action to take up time.
There does seem to be an explanation that links HAL's story
to the larger story. At the end of the film the aliens/monolith appears to
transform Bowman into something new: the starchild.
This is paralleled in the HAL story where Bowman disconnects
HAL. HAL reverts to a child like state. HAL's last words are "I'm ready
for my first lesson." Like the aliens with human, humans have created
HAL's intelligence. In the end they realize that this intelligence has its
dangers, so Bowman must reset HAL. Humanity has failed in its attempt to create
intelligence.
This brings up the question of exactly what happens to
Bowman at the end. Do the aliens, as I originally thought, elevate Bowman, and
therefore Humanity, to the next level? Or, do they, like Bowman, realize that
they have failed to create the intelligence they wanted? Are they then, as with
HAL, reset Bowman to a new starting point.
The parallels between HAL and Bowman/Starchild suggests a
different interpretation of the ending. It is not that Bowman has moved on to a
new higher level, but rather that he has been sent back to start over again. At
the end of the Dawn of Man story in the book, it says of Moonwatcher: "He
would think of something." At the end of the book the same words are used
in reference to the starchild. This sounds to me as more of a reset than a elevation.
I think the question about what happens at the end brings a
focus on the ability of the aliens. Are they so advanced that they make no
mistakes? If so, then they would elevate Bowman to the next level. If they can
make mistakes, then what happens to Bowman is a reset. The aliens are so
advanced beyond our level of understanding, that we humans are unlikely to be
able to tell the difference. Punishment and reward are indistinguishable to us.
