As someone who thinks about 2001: A Space Odyssey perhaps too often, I’d like to thank Switched.com [via Boing Boing] for feeding my never-ending hunger for HAL 9000 scoop and trivia. Turns out the song HAL sings before sputtering into obscurity, “Daisy,” was the first song ever “sung” by a computer. In the video below, you can hear HAL and a IBM 7090 series machine sing back-to-back. Which is creepier? I say the IBM!
Nerd prompt: Does this “Daisy” trivia lend more credence to the much-disputed theory that in addition to standing for Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer, HAL is really named HAL because its letters are one step ahead of IBM? Does writing this post make me a virgin again? So many questions. By the way, now I can’t stop thinking of potential scenarios for HAL fan fic. HAL gets overtaken by the “please hold” Apple pinwheel, HAL engages in a blinking contest with AUTO from WALL*E, HAL gets a makeover from Alicia Silverstone and Stacey Dash…
Comments (1-12) of 12 Add your comment
No OTHER computer could beat the creepiness of HAL singing Daisy1
Stanley Kubrick had a knack for making lighthearted, cheerful songs creepy and disturbing. Look what he did to “We’ll Meet Again” and “Singing in the Rain.”
The IBM computer never committed homicide. At least, that we know.
or do we?
And it takes a different, but just as geeky, nerd to point out that the song’s title is not “Daisy”, but “Bicycle Built For Two.”
I finally made myself sit through the entire movie of 2001. Although not long..it’s so slow it feels like it. The HAL scenes were awesome, especially when he interacted with Dave. That scene were Dave tells him to sing as he’s dying makes the computer almost human and you feel some sympathy for it. But I do admit it’s a creepy song for both HAL and IBM to sing for some reason.
The scenes with HAL and Dave are the best in that movie. And that scene especially where Dave lets him sing the song as it dies is creepy. But it makes HAL almost human and you feel some sort of sympathy. Both versions are creepy…but I will agree the IBM one is creepier. And I hope it doesn’t make me a virgin again responding to your post.
…and normally I wouldn’t apply to a reply or my other reply. The first post didn’t originally post and gave me an error. Then it posted after I typed the second. Just didn’t want people to think I was insane. Maybe the song is slowly getting to me.
The IBM didn’t strike me so much as “creepy”, but as “T-Pain”
“2001″ is my all-time favorite movie!
HAL… If you take each letter of HAL’s name, and advance it by one.. H, becomes I – A becomes B, and L becomes M
It should be a computer SANG for the first time, not SUNG. The grammatical mistake is creepier than the computers singing.