o use these abilities." Hal lacks this knowledge and wisdom and therefore cannot be responsible for his actions. On the other hand, perhaps, Hal is a rational creature. Hal does pass the Turing test after all. As discussed in class, a machine passes the Turing test when you can carry on a discussion with a machine and not be able to distinguish it from a human. Without flaw Hal would pass the Turing test, but why? Is it because Hal has learned the language? No, it is because he has been programmed to know it. Hal was also trained to carry out a successful mission without any flaws. When Dave returns to the ship to ultimately shut him down, perhaps Hal takes on a position of self-defense. In this case of self-defense, Hal could not be held accountable for his actions because he was merely protecting his own mind. Death to Hal means disconnection. When Clarke looks into Hals mind he states, " He had been threatened with disconnection; he would be deprived of all his inputs, and thrown into an unimaginable state of unconsciousness." Because Hal has not learned from his trainers the possibility of reconnection, he can ultimately claim self-Page 4defense. Hypothetically speaking Hal would say, " I was under duress, my mind was about to be taken away. I was about to die. That is why I killed crewmembers." To prevent his death Hal killed the crewmembers that were going to disconnect him. Hal might have suffered from an emotional imbalance cause by the stresses of the mission. This can be proved because Hal actually did make a mistake. Because the series 9000 HAL computer is supposedly infallible, it can be argued the stress of the mission and cover up of the mission put Hal into a state of disarray leading to the false prediction of the antenna failure. Hals disarray can be seen in the killing of the 3 crewmembers in hibernation. All in all, these crewmembers were needed to complete a successful mission. So why would Hal kill them? There was...
