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From: ntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: About 2001 ,Hal and IBM ?!...
Message-ID: <433@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Oct-83 18:51:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: dciem.433
Posted: Tue Oct 18 18:51:53 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Oct-83 19:23:04 EDT
References: <430@dciem.UUCP>
Organization: NTT Systems Inc., Toronto, Canada
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   HAL does stand for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer; however,
   it's not just a coincidence that it's a rot(1) of IBM.  I believe the book
   2010: Odyssey II says that the initials were chosen because the HAL series
   was supposed to be "one step ahead of IBM."  My guess is that this was not
   mentioned in 2001 because Clarke and Kubrick wanted people to figure it
   out for themselves.
                                       Jeff Richardson

Clarke has asserted several times that it *was* a coincidence.  In `The Lost
Worlds of 2001' he adds that if it had been noticed they would certainly have
changed it.  The sequel (which I haven't read yet) is a work of fiction
and Jeff's quotation looks like a nice touch of retroactive justification.

Considering that...
	(1) Clarke wanted to give his computer an ordinary personal name
	(2) he also wanted to have some kind of acronymic justification for it
	(3) the above two items are easier if the name is kept short, and
there are only so many short names
	(4) there are many other *equally likely* coincidences that might
have occurred, e.g. rot(2) of IBM, that would be taken as equally surprising

...the view that it was anything but a coincidence seems very hard to take.

Mark Brader