HAL 9000

Though, when Jose Cordeiro asked Clarke what he thought about religion in general, Clarke replied “Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses. I am afraid to be struck by lightning one day while saying this” (Cordeiro). The slight skepticism in this quote is manifested in Clarke’s short story The Nine Billion Names of God. In this story, the Dalai Lama calls a man to create a machine that will print out all of the names that describe God in a specific language that the monks had devised…

Introduction When it comes to maintaining and supporting legacy aircraft such as the F-16 within today’s Air Force inventory, the logistics scheme currently in use includes distinct and separate information systems for repair, supply, maintenance personnel and skills, mission planning and post-mission debriefings. They are standard for the Air Force and used by other fleets (Butler, 2013). With the introduction of the Joint Strike Fighter program, the F-35 will replace several aircraft…

is mined whose origin and material are unknown, this monolith sends a signal to Jupiter. The space ship Discovery is sent to advance to the destination of the signals. Two of the team are awake, the rest of the team is sleeping. The board computer HAL 9000 is becoming more and more of a threat. For me as a Sci-Fi enthusiast it is almost an impudence not to have seen Kubrick's 2001 yet. Now, after watching it in class, I realize, however, why I delayed viewing this film for so long Without…

One of the biggest questions philosophers are faced with is “How do we know we are conscious or not?”. The question cannot easily be answered know if we aren’t fully aware of consciousness itself. An easy way to interpret this concept is a quote from an Indian philosopher when he made a comparison of an eye not being able to look at itself (Solomon, 2008, p. 19), which means that we can understand the world with the use of it, but we cannot understand consciousness itself. I will argue in this…

Technology is advancing to where everyday tasks become simpler with a click of a button. Search engines like Bing, Yahoo, or even Google allow people to instantly find answers that we are looking for on any topic. In Nicholas Carr’s article “ Is Google Making Us Stupid,” he appeals to readers’ emotions to describe personal experiences, uses logic, facts, and analysis backed by research to lure the audience in, and persuades them that the internet causes our brain to be easily distracted and…

The popularity of Jonathan Demme's movie is likely to last as long as there is a market for being scared. Like “Nosferatu,” “Psycho” and “Halloween,” it illustrates that the best thrillers don't age. Fear is a universal emotion and a timeless one. But “Silence of the Lambs” is not merely a thrill show. It is also about two of the most memorable characters in movie history, Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter, and their strange, strained relationship (“people will say we're in love,” Lecter…

Science Fiction is all about humans’ interactions and reactions with technology of the future. Through our own society we use these strange situations to encompass the unknown and face the bizarre. The future of humanity is uncertain and can be very scary as to what will happen next. Many wonder what will be the next big event? The novels that will be discussed are A Scanner Darkly, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. These books identify different aspects of…

An Analysis of Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid” In the last 30 years, a wave of technological innovation has swept over the Earth, blanketing our cultures with Cell Phones, Microwaves, and the peculiar creation labeled simply, “The Internet”. Emerging to the public in the 1990’s, the Internet is a vast collection of databases stored all around the world, allowing anyone with a computer and access to the internet to view virtually anything you might want to learn about. However, even in its…

Science fiction for children is a form of fantasy literature that takes real science and extrapolates the science to form fantasy stories. Science fiction teaches students how real science ideas work but tweaks it so that it does not become real. Back when society carried boom boxes and radios to listen to music around the house on the way to the beach, when nobody could peacefully listen to music because they had headphones that weighed a lot. A writer by the name of Ray Bradbury introduced a…

”I 'm sorry, Dave. I 'm afraid I can 't do that.” This line was spoken by the computer HAL 9000 from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, unlike the common portrayal of artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence systems are not out to replace humans and are not anywhere close to humans in their thinking abilities. Current artificial intelligence technology is best defined as decision making technology. Artificial intelligence is a developing technology that can improve human lives…