“Thus Spake Zarathustra”

“That’s why they shouldn’t give a monkey a weapon.”

--Douglas Williams

I don’t know too many people, except for my husband Chris, who would spend a portion of their day off watching 2001: A Space Odyssey.  We all got caught up in this oddity/odyssey right off.  From the discovery of the strange black obelisk by a gang of evolutionizing monkeys, to Steve’s (I don’t know what his name was, but I like it) discovery of a bone that he would later turn into a weapon for killing food and then eventually to reclaim the watering hole.  The scene soon ends with the first death by bone attack, otherwise known as “the dawn of man”, then skips to a 1960’s version of 2001 and all to the tune of Richard Strauss’s “Thus Spake Zarathustra.”

Amidst our emotional recovery from the bone killing (very furry, not too violent, comparable to a brotherly kafuffle, only ending very, very badly), Douglas spake the following, “That’s why they shouldn’t give a monkey a weapon.” As the movie progressed, and amidst more questions concerning human hibernation, gravity, velcro shoes, space food tasting like squash, and the life span of the pre-dawn apes, we were introduced to the famous and very proud computer, H.A.L..  H.A.L. is a very intelligent and overly anxious  entity who believes he knows what is best for this mission -his assuming all power.  The way I see it, the space ship they are on is now the watering hole and H.A.L. is a new type of “Steve” who, but for his battle with Dave (that’s his real name) and Dave’s knowledge of how to unplug H.A.L., would have killed all on board with his cyber bone.  The “dawn of H.A.L.” will have to come to another cast and crew in perhaps the 2060’s called, “3010: Space Odyssey.”

What our generation of the year 2009 must always remember, and must learn from Dave and the Mr. Bone-dead-ape, is to never give a monkey a weapon, or a computer.

(Chris just informed me that they did make 2 more movies, the next being called “2010: The Year We Make Contact” where someone has plugged a now very paranoid H.A.L. back in, and Dave has become an “incorporeal entity.”