2001 stands as the cinematic equivalent of a hapax legomenon, a visionary thought experiment that had no precedent and will have no successor.
— David Bromwich (London Review of Books)
HAL’s outpouring of feeling contrasts with the emotionlessness that characterizes the human figures in the film, who go about their business with an almost robotic efficiency. Their thoughts and actions feel scripted, as if they’re following the steps of an algorithm. In the world of 2001, people have become so machinelike that the most human character turns out to be a machine. That’s the essence of Kubrick’s dark prophecy: as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence.
— Nicholas Carr: The Shallows: How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember (2010)
Synopsis: Humanity finds a mysterious object buried beneath the lunar surface and sets off to find its origins with the help of HAL 9000, the world's most advanced super computer.