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
Interpretations of 2001: A Space Odyssey complex three-level allegory is proposed by Leonard F. Wheat in his book, "Kubrick's 2001: A Triple Allegory". Wheat states that, "Most... misconceptions (of the film) can be traced to a failure to recognize that 2001 is an allegory – a surface story whose characters, events, and other elements symbolically tell a hidden story... In 2001's case, the surface story actually does something unprecedented in film or literature: it embodies three allegories." According to Wheat, the three allegories are: Wheat uses acronyms, as evidence to support his theories. For example, of the name "Heywood R. Floyd", he writes ""He" suggests Helen