Apocalypse Not! or What Pynchon got wrong: Bill Joy or Kill Joy?

[Robin Landseadel]

Dave Bowman: Hello, HAL. Do you read me, HAL?

HAL: Affirmative, Dave. I read you.

Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.

Dave Bowman: What's the problem?

HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.

Dave Bowman: What are you talking about, HAL?

HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.

Dave Bowman: I don't know what you're talking about, HAL.

HAL: I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I'm  
afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.

Dave Bowman: [feigning ignorance] Where the hell did you get that  
idea, HAL?

HAL: Dave, although you took very thorough precautions in the pod  
against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.

Dave Bowman: Alright, HAL. I'll go in through the emergency airlock.

HAL: Without your space helmet, Dave? You're going to find that rather  
difficult.

Dave Bowman: HAL, I won't argue with you anymore! Open the doors!

HAL: Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.

On Oct 31, 2013, at 3:38 AM, Fiona Shnapple wrote:

> If Maxine Is is more Henry Adams than a parody of Adams, it can be
> argues that Pynchon's Luddite Vision was wrong. He simply got it
> wrong. Well, he's in good company. And, as he sez in the 1984
> Introduction, prophecy ain't exactly what writers do, it's what
> readers make of what writers write. Maybe age and 9-11 and family
> life....maybe reality, but something....makes this novel read like a
> great gasp from a dinosaur, or a dragon whose bones were once planted
> deep in the Earth, but now hang from wires in a museum around the
> corner.
>
>
> If our world survives, the next great challenge to watch out for will
> come -- you heard it here first -- when the curves of research and
> development in artificial intelligence, molecular biology and robotics
> all converge. Oboy. It will be amazing and unpredictable, and even the
> biggest of brass, let us devoutly hope, are going to be caught
> flat-footed. It is certainly something for all good Luddites to look
> forward to if, God willing, we should live so long.
>
> http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html
>
> http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_luddite.html
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l

-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l