OK, I’ve heard several times that the acronym used in 2001 Space Odyssey for the computer, HAL, is derived from IBM. Take each letter, go one back in the alphabet, and you get HAL. Or perhaps vice versa. Was this intentional, or some neat coincidence somebody figured out?
It was a one in 17,576 chance that it would work out like that. Statistically speaking it was nothing short of a miracle.
I heard an interview on public radio a while back with Arthur C. Clarke and he said it was purely accidental. He claimed that if he noticed it early enough he would have changed the name (of course he might have said that to avoid legal troubles with IBM).
I always heard that and it sounds probable, but I’ve seen it debunked. I thought it was on Snopes, but I can’t find it there. Maybe Cecil had a go at it.
The statement that it was an accident is correct. I read the same statement in my copy of “The Making of 2001.”
Well, if you assume that the choice was made from three letter names that are relatively common, such as Ben, Bob, Jim, Dan, etc., then it’s more likely than 1/17,576
It seems a little fishy to me, but, on the other hand, coincidences happen all the time and if a “great work” is studied hard enough, you can find all sorts of “Bible Codes.”
Clarke claims it was an accident, So only he really knows. Remember that the Newlywed game guy claimed for years that nothing like the “In the butt” thing ever happened, but recently the footage was found. So we’ll never really know
cite, cite, cite…?
Don’t have a URL but it is real. I’ve seen it. Comedy Central’s The Man Show has shown it several times.
I’ve also seen it on the Man Show. It looked legit to me.
The Snopes update.
Here’s another computer related acronym mystery:
When Microsoft began to develop Windows NT they hired one of the chief designers of the operating system for the VAX computer which was called VMS (I think it stood for Virtual Memory System, I may be wrong).
Now take Windows NT, and make an acronym out of it (remember NT supposedly stands for ‘New Technology’). You get WNT. Move back a single digit on each letter and VOILA!: VMS. Coincidence?
It was the operating system which was called VMS, not the computer, and it is still used quite a bit in large multi-user mainframe systems. I don’t know if the name for WNT is anything more than a coicidence, but DEC did “lend” some VMS technology towards its development. In return, Microsoft ported Windows NT to Alpha, DECs high end processor platform. NT on Alpha was a total disaster.
In regards to Snoopes update on the ‘in the ass’ thing. According to them the clip actually aired!! I find this impossible to believe. I don’t think The Newlywed Game was ever a live broadcast, and there’s just no way something like that would get aired in the early 70s.