HAL 9000 is the original suspicious digital assistant. Before we invite Alexa, Google, and Siri into our lives to surveil our every action there was 2001: Space Odyssey’s HAL, an AI so murderous it’s a wonder anyone saw its actions and thought, “you know, not all of this is bad.” But despite the fact that HAL gave us…
Master Replicas, makers of some of the finest lightsaber replicas in any galaxy, sadly closed its doors back in 2008. Last year, however, part of its original team opened Master Replicas Group, a new company that’s relaunching with a series of 2001: A Space Odyssey collectibles to start, including a flash drive based…
Hallmark is continuing its celebration of the 50th anniversary of 2001: A Space Odyssey right to the end of 2018 with a new keepsake ornament that lets you hang a miniature version of the film’s HAL 9000 computer on your Christmas tree, complete with its menacing, glowing, red eye.
As I vaguely recall, 2001: A Space Odyssey might have been trying to tell us something about the dangers of artificial intelligence. But I haven’t seen the movie in years, and instead of morals, all I can remember is how cool HAL9000 seemed, so I’m already fantasizing about making room on my wall for this replica of…
The crowd cheered in California on Monday, when Apple announced HomePod, a new smart speaker armed with Siri, the company’s virtual assistant. Minutes later, an image of the product appeared on Apple’s website and, well, holy shit, it looks just like HAL 9000! Is Apple fucking with us?
Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's roundup of the most interesting toys we’ve seen this week. It’s a Guardians of the Galaxy blowout as we’ve got life-sized Groots, creepy plush Groots, and a fancy cassette player. But wait—there’s more, including a very swanky David Bowie figure and a very large Iron Man. Check it out!
Before he started busting myths, Adam Savage worked in the special effects industry building props and models for films. His love of iconic film artifacts is reflected in some of the recent builds he’s shared online, but it’s also fun to just watch him geek out over Peter Jackson’s amazing film prop collection.
Here’s an excellent re-imagination of two of the most famous depictions of artificial intelligence in film, HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Samantha from Her. Tillmann Ohm stitched together the actual dialogue from the films to construct a new conversation between the two. It flows rather well.
Freaked out about the "always on" Xbox One creeping on your life? You probably shouldn't be. But if you're one of those people who's afraid of connecting your Xbox to the Internet, love playing old and used games and hate having a Kinect, this is your hilarious fear of Xbox One: it's HAL 9000.
With home automation being all the rage these days, it was only a matter of time before Siri got her little, occasionally holier-than-thou claws into the action. All it took was YouTube user Elvis Impersonator, a Raspberry Pi, and enough trust in Siri's goodness to believe she won't devolve into a Hal 9000 wannabe.
Good morning, Reader. This is a HAL 9000 replica computer. It became operational at the ThinkGeek Plant today, and is built with the same illustrations and blueprints as the one used in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Two years before Stanley Kubrick released 2001: A Space Odyssey, he was starting to worry that IBM would get a little mad when HAL 9000, the computer they helped design, came off, well, psychotic.
Sure, Siri is cool. It can make appointments, send emails, and knit you sweaters (unverified), but you have to talk into your hand. That's no fun. And where's the big, red, evil eye? There's got to be a better way!
Remember Justin Van Genderen's throwback travel posters for locales in comic books and the Star Wars universe? He's now given 2001: A Space Odyssey a similar retro rehash. HAL comes preprogrammed with "Daisy Bell," I'm assuming.
Just because this decal is obvious, it's not less awesome. Actually, I really wish I could turn my MacBook into the real HAL 9000, Dave. [Etsy via Geeky Gadgets]
Both machines are killers, but which one is less evil? Which one would kill you more humanely? [Pickaklas]
We know. He certainly looks cute and harmless. But sooner or later, the HAL 9000 (freely printable papercraft version) could get a small, unintentional dent in the side. "I'll just toss him in the shredder for another," you say out of earshot from the harmless little paper computer. Or so you thought... [Mr. Hal 9000…
The people at the Fark forums have run a Photoshop contest on HAL 9000, twisting the ominous red eye of the psychopath mainframe into all sorts of funny variations. From HAL 9000 to PAL 9000 to HEIL 9000 to the obligatory GLORY HAL, the resulting gallery is hilarious.
John Seabrook wrote a recent feature in The New Yorker about interactive-voice-response systems (I.V.R.) commonly used with customer service and tech support telephone hotlines. Seabrook spent time at B.B.N. Technologies watching these systems transcribe callers' words and analyzing the tone of voice for emotions…
Google and the internet are changing the way our brains work, no doubt about it. With the internet at our fingertips, why bother to remember trivial facts when Wikipedia is just a click or two away? In the latest issue of The Atlantic, Nicholas Carr makes a convincing argument about the various ways our obsession…
