Monolith (Space Odyssey) fused as one being "Halman" in the Monolith's computational matrix) were able to introduce a computer virus into TMA-2 which destroyed it before it could render the human race extinct. The Firstborn did not appear to have abandoned all interest in the evolutionary experiments overseen by the ancient Monoliths. Given that the Monoliths' communications are said to be limited by the speed of light, but Dave Bowman is sent on an interstellar journey at the end of "2001: A Space Odyssey", and Bowman is apparently transformed into the Star Child, not by the Monoliths, but by the Firstborn (both Kubrick
2001: A Space Odyssey (novel) trying to tell us something?" Clarke himself directly addressed the spelling issue in chapter 19 of "The Lost Worlds of 2001", explaining that he simply (and unconsciously) used the spelling he was familiar with from "The Conquest of Space" (1949) by Willy Ley and Chesley Bonestell, presuming that the "J" form is the German rendering of the Greek. The film "2010" was released in 1984 resulting in movie tie-in editions of both the "2001" and "2010" novels. At the time Signet Books reported that over 2.8 million copies of "2001" were in print and that "2010" was one of 1983's