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
The Space Movie The Space Movie The Space Movie is a documentary film produced in 1979 by Tony Palmer at the request of NASA, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the "Apollo 11" moon landing. The 78 minute film was released theatrically in 1980, on VHS in 1983 and on DVD in 2007. Richard Branson and Simon Draper's Virgin Films produced the film. Ed Bishop provided some narration for the film. The music for "The Space Movie" was produced by the English multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield who was then signed to Virgin Records. The film included pieces from Oldfield's released works, including "Tubular Bells"