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) to Clarke. Clarke's cabled response stated that he was "frightfully interested in working with [that] "enfant terrible"", and added "what makes Kubrick think I'm a recluse?" Meeting for the first time at Trader Vic's in New York on April 22, 1964, the two began discussing the project that would take up the next four years of their lives. Clarke kept a diary throughout his involvement with "2001", excerpts of which were published in 1972 as "The Lost Worlds of 2001". Kubrick told Clarke he wanted to make a film about "Man's relationship to the universe", and was, in Clarke's words,