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Abrar Maheer

Analysis of 2001 Space Odyssey


2001 Space Odyssey is a meditation on the question of extraterrestrial
intervention and its influence on the process of human evolution. It covers 4 million
years, from the opening scene The Dawn of Man in the Pleistocene era to the
space technology of the 21st century. In the opening scenes, we witness the apes
encountering a black monolith which serves as their guiding stone. Interacting with
the it seems to permeate intelligence to the apes who learn to utilise their
environment to create elementary tools of survival. An ape finds a bone and uses it
as a weapon to protect his tribe, killing anteaters, and overcome rival monkeys. The
other clan of apes lacks bones/weaponry and loses. The fittest survive, we are told,
in a Darwinian fashion. The ape throws his bone into the air, and we fast forward
millions of years into the future with man flying around in space in space ships. Man
has progressively evolved to now defy gravity. We see ships and humans flitting and
dancing about in space, no longer subject to the former laws that kept him
earthbound. The films main theme, simply put, will be human evolution. It depicts
the ascent of man, cloaking a deeper, darker agenda an occult agenda where man
evolves to become God.
The film shows a strong presence of Friedrich Nietzches philosophy. Nietzsche's
book, Also Sprach Zarathustra, presents the idea that mankind will one day be
surpassed by the bermensch or the superman. This idea shares its origin with
Darwin's theory of natural selection. Nietzsche saw life as a struggle for existence in
which the fittest survive: strength is the only virtue, and weakness the only
fault. According to Nietzsche, the evolution of man will travel through three stages:
primitive man (ape), modern man, and ultimately, superman. Being in the middle,
man is simply a bridge between ape and superman. Nietzsche's idea is elaborated
on in his belief that the spirit of man is born of two gods: Dionysus and Apollo.
Based on this idea, primitive man is Dionysian in spirit, lead by instinct and living in
the moment, but lacking intellectual abilities. Modern man, however, is Apollonian in
spirit, peaceful and calm, conquered by democracy, socialism, and religions which
Nietzsche dubs as pathetic creatures. The superman will be a move back toward a
Dionysian state. The superman will regain man's lost instinct.
As the film continues, it introduces HAL 9000, a computer system riddled with
artificial intelligence. We see how HAL and his understanding make us perceive him
closely to human. HAL develops a frustration for the crew due to their lack
motivation which causes him to strike against them. This marks a shift from HALs
programmed Apollonian self to a Dionysian self, in effect, his development follows
the opposite of the transformation from Dionysian to Apollonian in the case of the
evolution from ape to man. Furthermore, the crew plans to turn HAL off and shut
him down and in turn turns the computer system against them. Here, we can draw
parallels with Gilbert Ryles dogma of the ghost in the machine. Ryle explains that
there is no hidden entity called "the mind" inside a mechanical apparatus called
"the body." The workings of the mind are not an independent mechanism that

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governs the workings of the body. Deeming it a category mistake Ryle explains
that they are not different forms of existence but rather different senses of
existence. It is evident with HAL that his physical components itself are his source of
intelligence which extends onto space and is divisible. Contrary to Rene Descartes
take on dualism, when HAL is shut off his mind ceases to exist along with his
physical self.
If we were to consider David Humes principle of causality, the state of superman
can never be reached. Man can be labeled as the cause of the superman. However,
because causality was not something which could be empirically measured and
observed, causality does not exist. Instead, there is only the expectation that one
event will follow another and we can obtain a sequence of events from this. As a
result, the superman cannot be caused by man but can only be perceived as such.
Nevertheless, the superman is reached at the end of 2001. In the final scenes, the
astronaut, David Bowman, lies on his deathbed. He wills the superman into
existence before expiring. The Nietzschean idea could be summarized as mankind's
struggle to reach an Ideal, the perfect being.

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