If you loved “2001: A Space Odyssey,” you’ll be delighted by this book that asks “How realistic
was HAL?”
Contributions by various scientists include essays on supercomputer design with regard
to speech synthesis, common sense reasoning, emotions, lip reading and even playing chess. As the
authors explore what is science fantasy and what is technological fact, they also look at how HAL
influenced technological development in the past 30 years. The final chapter, called “When HAL
Kills, Who’s to Blame?” deals with the ethical aspects of building intelligent machines.