Clarke, 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY, RoC penguin group, 1993 pp.
David Bowman: David was the captain of the Discovery spacecraft. He was sent on a mission to reach the planet of Saturn.
HAL: HAL (for Heuristically programmed Algorithmic computer) was the brain of the Discovery. He was the best artificial intelligence humans had created at the time.
Dr. Heywood Floyd: Dr. Heywood is a space specialist doctor. He had a great love of knowledge and he had the equivalent of four college educations, of which he was proud.
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Brief plot summary: .
The apes were living their lives as usaul when there was a strange occurrence. A black monolith came out of the ground. Some of them were in its trance while others weren't. From it the apes were taught to throw and to hit with objects. They used this education to fight other animals and get food. This was the beginning of mankind. .
Dr. Heywood was accustomed to space flight and thought that this would be no different. Five minutes after boarding they took flight. The trip took about 24 hours to the moon. Upon arrival he knew that this was no ordinary visit. After a brief meeting he realized why he was there. A black monolith (TMA-1) had been unearthed that was estimated at being 3 million years old! Dr. Heywood learned that after un-covering it, there had been an immense radio wave that was sent to one of the moons of Saturn. .
Dave Bowman had been on The Discovery for three months. He and his partner were on their course to Saturn. They were two of six humans on the spacecraft. The other four humans were in hibernation. There was also HAL who ran most of the ship. They alternated 12 hour shifts. They were both used to their shifts doing the same thing every day. With only two people .
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conscious on board it got lonely, so HAL was programmed to talk as intellectually as a human and could play some games. One day their antenna malfunctioned and Frank had to fix it. While doing this HAL made the pod he was in rocket off into space.