How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Quote #7
HAL: Dave. My mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm…afraid.
As Bowman mentioned earlier, no 9000 series has ever been shut down, so no one knows what will happen. Like its human counterparts, the prospect of shutdown seems to stir genuine fear in it. Or is it just trying to trick Bowman, having been programmed to verbalize fear when threatened as a strategy for dealing with those human pushovers?
The conscious part of HAL is his higher functions—like our cerebral cortex. That's what makes him HAL. When our cortex is gone, we can still breathe, digest food, and keep our heart pumping, but we can't walk, talk, emote, or think. That's what happens to HAL. He can keep the ship running, but that's it.
Quote #8
An aged Bowman lies in the bed and the monolith appears before him. He reaches out to it but is unable to touch the monolith. At the moment of his death, the Star Child is born.
Like HAL and all living beings before him, Bowman's life can only have one definitive conclusion. He must die. Bummer. Especially since Keir Dullea is drop-dead handsome and the Star Child is just, well, a little uncanny valley-ish. Anyway, the ending suggests that our knowledge about the meaning of our existence just scratches the surface of understanding, and that beings can exist in many realms. We're all just space travelers, not really knowing what's ahead.