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1. The HAL-9000 computer, guardian of the spacecraft Discovery in the novels and films of 2001: A Space Odyssey and its sequel, 2010. First activated at the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois on January 12, 1997 (or 1992 in the film version). HAL is short for Heuristic ALgorithmic, and not derived by moving one letter back from the initials of IBM, as some have suggested. HAL's apparently psychotic behaviour in 2001 is revealed in the novel, and in either version of 2010, to have been a result of a neurosis arising from conflicts between his programming to accurately input, analyse and output information, and the demands of national security mandated by the Pentagon. 2. Any troublesome, wary or otherwise bloody-mindedly unhelpful computer.
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