Alive in the Net

Abstract

‘I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.’ Perhaps the most famous words ever uttered by a computer in film take their power from a doubly self-effacing gesture. Like Bartleby’s ‘I would prefer not to’, HAL’s calm words immobilize the human protagonist of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) simply by refusing to act. HAL maroons Dave in space, stranding him outside the spacecraft without disrupting his ability to communicate with earth. But commands from ground control are just as unavailing. Cut off physically while remaining linked via voice communication creates a special form of terror, one emphasized by Kubrick’s prolonged shot of Dave’s motionless capsule floating beside the main ship. Awareness of one’s situation coupled with an inability to act — it is what the computer sentience addressed as HAL has known for as long as it has been self-aware. The computer has effectively turned the tables, projecting its own terrible limitations onto the human.