Technologies in 2001: A Space Odyssey well, such as a nervous breakdown—as Hal did in the film. Clarke noted that, contrary to popular rumor, it was a complete coincidence that each of the letters of Hal's name immediately preceded those of IBM in the alphabet. The meaning of HAL has been given both as "Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer" and as "Heuristic ALgorithmic computer". The former appears in Clarke's novel of "2001" and the latter in his sequel novel "2010". In computer science, a heuristic is a programmable procedure not necessarily based on fixed rules, producing informed guesses often using trial-and-error. The results can be false such
2001: A Space Odyssey (film) "Action Office" series. First introduced in 1968, the Action Office-style "cubicle" would eventually occupy 70 percent of office space by the mid-2000s. Danish designer Arne Jacobsen designed the cutlery used by the "Discovery" astronauts in the film. Other examples of modern furniture in the film are the bright red Djinn chairs seen prominently throughout the space station and Eero Saarinen's 1956 pedestal tables. Olivier Mourgue, designer of the Djinn chair, has used the connection to "2001" in his advertising; a frame from the film's space station sequence and three production stills appear on the homepage of Mourgue's website. Shortly before