Roland Dudley wrote:
>
> Tell you what Steve, you explain the ending of "2001" to me (the movie,
> that is, not the year- though I'm not so sure I understand the ending of
> the year either), and I'll explain the ending of "The Prisoner" to you.
>
> Roland
Deal!
I will not bore you with my personal relationships with Arthur C.
Clarke, not Stan Kubrick, but only tell you that it is quite simple.
First, we are NOT discussing the creation of the universe, or it's
population. Let's leave that battle to the "Creationists". But, given
that life on earth exists, there is no valid reason to believe that
earth contains the only life in the Universe, nor the most advanced. The
original Clarke short story was entitled "The Sentinel", which ought to
give you some clue.
Moving from that concept, we run smack up against how "intelligence" and
"cognition" began, a separate question. Arthur puts it into the hands of
much more advanced beings who began an experiment by sending an
"intelligence jump-starter" to a primitive earth populated by low
intelligence hominids. One group passes the initial test of having the
absolute requirement for intelligence to root and grow, curiosity and bravery.
OK, know you understand the beginning.
Assuming that this advanced race would be curious to know if there
long-term experiment works, they set up a test that only beings advanced
to a certain level could pass. Hiding a signaling device in a place
where space travel has been discovered, as well as a continued search
for understanding. The discovery of another, giant monolith.
Man passes this test, and we begin our journey, with Bowman and HAL to
Jupiter (which I just helped launch!!). I am sure you know that HAL is
just 1 letter removed from IBM!
You will notice that they find yet another Monolith, yet again much
larger than it's predecessor. You see Bowman go into the monolith for
an apparent long duration, during which he ages considerably. Would you
believe that during this time he was being thoroughly evaluated as to
his progress along the road to evolutionary growth.
Apparently, he passes the tests, representing humanity, and he is
"reborn" as an enhanced being, a 'star child', an 'angel', a 'superman',
any word that describes the next step in the species evolution along the
pathway to the long road of evolutionary advancement. The next leap
forward of man's evolutionary destiny. One small step for man -----
Now, your next challenge is to read "2010, The Year We Make Contact",
the sequel, to see what happens next! (or watch both on their DVD
releases, it reading such a long book is too much of a chore. Of course
a movie simplifies, explains less, and compresses a lot.
OK, you've got your explanation, which I thought was fairly obvious,
even from the excellent move alone.
Now, spend as much time clarifying the end of the Prisoner. My
explanation took a lot more time than represented by the contained
condensed word picture herein.
I'll explain the end of 2001, the year, if you like. But we should
really wait until it happens, or I might reveal sources of future
information you are not evolutionarily prepared to understand, or
accept, yet. (8-)
--
Steve Laifman
Editor
http://www.TigersUnited.com
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