It makes perfect sense, given the evidence, but it's still not true. Other examples?

[Scott_Plaid]

When I first saw 2001, with my friends, they paused to explain every little detail and nuance. When HAL was first named, they took great pains to explain “how he got his name” That is to say, move one letter to the right for each letter of his name, and you get IBM. I called bullshit on this, having vaguely remembered reading an interview with one of the people responsible, and refuted that theory. Nevertheless, he pointed out to me how it covered every possible angle, and worked with all the facts. However, I could find no cite to support my argument. Now I have.

@Rod Munday

7/ What do the letters HAL stand for and is there a connection with IBM?
Just to show you how interpretations can sometimes be bewildering: A cryptographer went to see the film, and he said, "Oh, I get it. Each letter of HAL’s name is one letter ahead of IBM […] now that’s pure co-incidence […] an almost inconceivable co incidence. It would have taken a cryptographer to notice that.

Stanley Kubrick (1)

---

HAL is an acronym for Heuristic ALgorithmic, the two competing methods of computer programming that, in the sixties, were seen as the leading contenders to produce artificial intelligence (AI). Arthur C. Clarke admitted Kubrick chose the name for the computer (2), his original idea was to make the computer a female called Athena. A while after 2001’s initial release, it was noticed that the letters H. A. L. also came one place before the letters I. B. M. in the alphabet., which led people to suspect that Kubrick and Clarke were having a joke at IBM’s expense.

Although Clarke concedes the odds against this are 17,576 to 1, he strongly denies the connection was intentional and admits to being embarrassed by the whole affair, especially as IBM had been very helpful to him and Kubrick during the making of the film. Clarke even went as far as inserting a passage into his novel 2010: Odyssey Two, to try to bury the story

"Is it true, Dr. Chandra, that you chose the name HAL to be one step ahead of IBM?"

"Utter nonsense! Half of us come from IBM and we've been trying to stamp out that story for years. I thought that by now every intelligent person knew that H-A-L is derived from Heuristic ALgorithmic." 

RM thanks to BA

Notes:
Most of the information in this answer came from Hal’s Legacy online at: mitpress.mit.edu

(1) Kubrick quote from an interview with Chris Kohler in the East Villiage Eye, reproduced in The Making of 2001: A Space Odyssey, edited by Martin Scorsese.

(2) Interview with Clarke from the January 1997 issue of Wired Magazine

Any other examples of similar things, and facts from film, books, and real life historical events people would like to share?

P.S. I accept that “That’s the way they talked in those days.” in regards to passionate letter between famous people, but only up to a point.

[capybara]

I’ve always been defensive for pre-Copernican mankind. I mean, of COURSE the sun moves around the earth. Are you moving? No? I mean, you can tell if you’re moving, right? Well, look in the damn sky. the thing’s MOVING! Get real.

[Scott_Plaid]

::nods::

Yeah, I can see that. It definitely makes sense looking at it that way.