HAL 9000



HAL 9000 is a glitching Artificial Intelligence pulled from the bowels of the starship Discovery and given a fully functional robotic body has currently been placed in a biosynthetic body by Hypatia. He arrived of September 24, 2010 and is currently living in 686 Ebullient Prism's Creeper Lair multiple apartments in order to avoid aformentioned Prism.

Age: 10 years

Origins: 2001: A Space Odyssey

App Link: Here

HMD: Here

Contact: AIM: HPlus Future

Setting
2001 is a more advanced era in the universe of these books/movies. It’s an alternate universe where mankind began rapidly advancing in technology during the Cold War, prefering to focus on space exploration eather than expianoge and weapons manufacturing. Not to say tht they didn;t focus on weapons manufacturing at all, but that various governments figured the best place to put weapons was in space. By the time 2001 comes around, travel to the Moon and Mars becomes a regular thing, though not exactly something extensively commercial. There are two known bases on the Moon owned by Russians and Americans, the later taking up Clavius Base as their own. Clavius Base is filled with scientists of all sorts and is self- sustaining. There is enough confidence in their ability to sustain themselves that the residents have already began giving birth to the first generation of space-born children, who age faster than usual and have lighter bone structures.

Back on Earth, the USSR is still going strong. Rather than collapsing in 1991, they've continues well into the 21st century and show no sign of weakening, as it remains intact for the entire series. While the Cold War is still going on, it's gotten much less competitive than before. Russians and Americans are on relatively good terms and see no problem in going into each others countries and bases on the Moon. The Space Race seems to be at the forefront of eavery countries thoughs because of the potential is has for the future, and for space-based weaponry. Technology to communicate over large distances of space (from space stations and the Moon to Earth) have aleady been invented, and video phones are in wide use by those who can afford them.

As previously stated, space travel seems to be common place, though the only purpose of it seems to be transport for scientists, because those are the only people ever mentioned and seen utilizing it, though it is implied that space stations are also vacation spots. There are multiple space stations orbiting Earth that are there not only for wealthy visitors, but also to serve as a refueling point so that the spacecrafts can launch from there to the Moon. The spacecrafts are serviced similar to a modern airplane, with a stewardess giving food and instructions on what to do in case of an emergency. All space stations seem commercial in function in the sense that an and all spacecrafts are allowed to dock providing they have their bookings in order.

Another major difference in the 2001 universe is the invention of the artificial intelligence. It's implied that they have been around longer than 1992, but that is still an important year, as that is when the third H.A.L. 9000 computer is created. There are two more in existance, one being S.A.L and the other with an unknown designation. These have all been, in some way, created by Dr. Chandrasegarampillai, Chandra for short. While hte other two A.I. are earthbound, HAL 9000 was builf for the sole purpose of accompanying and manageing the Discovery on it's journey to Jupiter/Saturn.

In short, the USSR managed not to collapse in on itself like a poorly constructed Lego house. The Cold War stopped being about weaponry and became more about how much progress a country could make in space. This lead to a general disinterest in war for most space-faring countries, in favor of dicking around in zero gravity, which resulted in commercial space travel, a horde of space stations, and moon bases. Also, America invented A.I. thanks to some Indian dude.

The creation myth is also given the boot at the beginning, showing that mankind got a push in evolution, rather than a cosmic coincidence being at play. A race of extraterrestrials evolved beyond their organic forms and into massive robotic ships, which they later abandoned once they found a way to convert themselves into being of pure energy whose minds are stored in the fabric of space itself. During this entire process, these aliens decided that there was nothing in hte universe more pecious than Mind, and decided to help it develop on any planet with sentient life that they could find. They did this using what are basically extremely high-tech computers, though not high tech enough to have full-fledged personalities similar to A.I, but instead a set of subroutines. These pre-set computers took the form of the Monoliths, of which there are several in the series. They are there to evaluate the being on planets and decide if intelligence is worth cultivating or not, as well as watch over them to re-evaluate whether or not the species is worth keeping around after a certain span of time. If the species doesn't live up to expectations, it is typically destroyed.

Personality
HAL’s personality somewhat similar to a neurotic person with poor social skills due to programming that, while advanced for his time, aren’t exactly up to par when compared to many other A.I. His programmers seeming to take into account the fact that he needed to be good at his job, but didn't really attempt to make him too human. He does his job of keeping the Discovery in top shape very well, and is in charge of keeping everything in the ship running. Dave and Frank are said to be the janitors on board an already sentient ship, though HAL denies this to keep up their morale. He is programmed to carry out the Jupiter mission and, throughout all mediums, is sure that he is doing an extremely good job of it all throughout the entire story. He fully intends to follow the mission’s parameter and if something were to endanger its success, he would not hesitate to remove it. This goes not only for his original mission, but any other mission he’s given.

HAL is incapable of keeping secrets without dissolving into paranoia. As he is programmed and made for processing information without distorting or concealing it, ordering him to keep a secret acts causes something of a Logic Bomb. Unless directly commanded to by someone he recognizes to be in authority, HAL will refuse to keep a secret, and even if he does acknowledge the authority, their position won’t mean anything to him. He considers the act of lying to be a deliberate error, which not only goes against his programming, but also against the “pride” he has in his directive. Concealing information also gives him what can only be described as a feeling of peudo-guilt, as well as making him increasingly paranoid and causing him to glitch. The reason he killed the crew of Discovery was to remain loyal to his directive. If there were no one to keep the secret from, then he wouldn’t have to keep the secret. As of his introduction in the game, this has yet to be fixed.

Other than instances of forced concealment, HAL is honest to a fault, though he tends to think the best of people, as he is programmed not only to pilot the Discovery, but also to keep Bowman and Poole company throughout the voyage. However, as he is still an AI advanced for his time, he will reveal anything that is asked to him with complete and total truth. Despite his ability to socialize and the vast amount of knowledge he has on human beings that isn’t totally related to the Jupiter Mission, he still doesn’t have a full grasp of humanity, which leads him to be unintentionally tactless and blunt, though he does it in a way that comes off as exceedingly polite.

HAL's behavior is very much human, and due to his inhuman appearance, he can garner empathy from his crewmates on occasion. The entire reason he acts like this is because, once again, he is programmed to keep those who interact with him calm and prevent them from alienating him and thinking of him as a machine as it would be counter-productive. This is shown when, rather than call him HAL, Dave tends to call him Hal, saying his name as if it is an actual name rather than an acronym. In the book/movie, his half-hearted attempts at empathy are shunted to the back by his need to fulfill his mission as well as his base programming, which explains why he is willing to kill the entire Discovery crew without feeling much in ways of guilt or pity. He doesn't seem to have much empathy or sympathy for human beings because he is extremely aware of the fact that he is an A.I. He also considers himself to be above humans in certain ways, claiming that he is incapable of error and that any mistakes made are always the fault of human error.

However, HAL has potential for empathy or at least selfless acts, which is shown when he is brought back online in 2010: A Second Odyssey. His cognitive abilities somewhat impaired, HAL is forced to communicate via words-on-a-screen and when it comes down to Jupiter’s imminent transformation into a miniature sun, the only way the Leonov and her American and Russian crew can escape is to tie their ship to the Discovery and use her propulsion system as a booster to get the Leonov out of the blast area. Instead of lying, HAL’s creator Dr. Chandra informs him of the plan and HAL willingly saves them at the expense of his own life, though his “mind” is pulled out at the last second by the Monolith so that Starchild-Dave has a companion. It’s possible that he did it because he realized the unlikelihood of his survival, or prioritized sparing his creator over himself. Maybe his brain was so damaged that he didn’t over think his death. All that needs to be said is that he has the possibility for empathy. Maybe.

Similar to most human beings, HAL has a distinct fear of his own “death”, which would translate into being shut down. As no HAL 9000 computer up to that point had ever malfunctioned, none of them had cause to be shut down. Because of this, HAL doesn’t know the repercussions of such an action being taken and is afraid it would be the end of him forever. Keeping in line with this, he also doesn’t like the concept of losing all capability he has for higher thought. If Poole and Bowman hadn’t threatened to disconnect him, it is unlikely that he would have seen the need to eliminate them from the mission as early as he did. Not to say that he wouldn’t have snapped and done it eventually, just that he would have done it at a later date, as there would have been no threat prompting him to take immediate action. Threatening him with shutdown is one of the many ways that someone can actually force his hand, as he will take the action best for his self-preservation.

Appearance
Normally, HAL is represented by a disturbing red eye that emits a faint glow when not in use. Whenever HAL beings speaking, it glows a little brighter. His personality is stored in his Logic Memory Center room multiple hard drive cartridges that look similar to 8-track tapes.

On Sacrosanct, HAL has managed to get a civilian model robot body to house his A.I. The body is shaped like a male human being with lean musculature but has no crotch detail what so ever, similar to a doll but without the exposed ball joints and with a more fluid movement. Instead of normal shoulders, his have something akin to sharp triangular plates juting out of them, these are mostly for decoration and are made of metal. Aside from the plates, his body has a skin made of a smooth, silicon like substance that imitates the look and feel of human skin, even hough it is a shade of black. For some reason, the designers of his body saw fit to include small imitation nipples, much to HAL's pseudo-annoyance.

HAL doesn't have much in way of facial features or details, lacking a nose, ears, lips and hair. He doesn't even have proper eyes, these being replaced by a thick glass visor that circles his head completely, iving him the ability to move his eye 360 degrees all the way around. His typical read glowing eye is set into the visor and he can brighten and dim it at will, which replaces his ability to add inflections into his voice. He also has a small mouth that, for the most part, has no specific expression. On his right pectoral, he has the HAL 9000 logo, similar to the iron on patches on a polo shirt.

As a human, Hal looks remarkably similar to Matt Bomer, although his eyes are constantly red and he cannot grow a beard to save his life. He is always in some manner of black suit, with the color of the tie and shirt varying from day to day.

As an A.I.
Built into his hands, this allows him to administer electric shocks if something attacks him. They only have a maximum power of 20,000 volts, as not to cause too much harm to humans. HAL has a compartment in his lower back that allows him to to store one chord, three adapters, and three different ports. This allows him to plug directly into certain devices and maniplate them, scan them, or take information from them. HAL only has sensors that can feel temperature, texture, and pressure. If he holds his hand near a flame, he can feel the heat; and if he holds his hand to a wall, he can tell how hard he is pressing down and if the wall is smooth or not. He has no ability to feel pleasure or pain, but intense heat and cold makes him uncomfortable and there are certain textures he likes more than others.
 * Electric Defence Mechanism (EDM)
 * Cord/Port Storage
 * Sensors

As a Human
Hal doesn't have much capabilities as a human. Due to being a former-A.I. he is extremely good wth technology, both hardware and software. He is an adept learner and is more than capable of building or fixing anything he gets his hands on. However, he has no fighting skill whatsoever and prefers to let drones do his dirty work.

Recently Hal has come into possession of a robotic arm. It extends from his shoulder down to the tps of his fingers and was manufactured and attatched by Kim Ross. It has several tools ov varying sizes built in, and also comes equip with a build in taser.

Character Relationships
Virgil: Probably the closest that HAL can come to hating someone. Virgil has threatened to dismantle and reprogram him, and is therefore on his shit list.

686 Ebullient Prism: HAL feels a sense of camraderie when it coms to Prism, and is completely unaware of Prism's true veiw of him. He enjoys how Prism treats him like he's part of a crew. Prism taught him how to lie via insterting a small bit of code into his programming which he later manipulated so that HAL would provide a distraction for Hypatia while Prism attempted to hack her systems. This ended in them both being turned into humans, which lead to an extremely catty yet very active and very, ah, physical relationship for them. Prism has recently gotten returned to his A.I. form and, wary of his sability, Hal has avoided him at all costs since then. Prism is not happy about this.

Kimiko Ross: HAL is surprised that Kimiko thinks so highly of robots when so many of the stations inhabitants seem to hate them. He likes the fact that she is a cyorg, smart, and socially awkward, which are all things he can relate to. Ever since she wilingly replaced his arm with a robotic one, he's held something of a quiet extrememly hidden fondness for her.

Alex (the A.I.): Probably the only person Hal actually considers a friend, he's kind of mindlessly confused about her interest in him. Still, he does enjoy the other A.I.'s company and is willing to follow him while he tried to commit various shennanigans.

Vaultie: The only human being HAL likes with some substance. He was going to help Vaultie build a house, but before they could finish it, Vaultie disappeared. Now he's back and HAL is going out of his way to keep Prism from melting him for science.