Wait - Stanley Kubrick ripped off Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea?

Say it ain't so! Actually I don't say it's so, but there is some mysterious similarities. Sn 1 Ep. 18 "The Human Computer," bears some striking similarities to 2001, especially when you consider this episode was aired on 15 February 1965, when Kubrick would have been in pre-production for 2001. You think I'm crazy? Well then

Consider the plot: a ship is completely under control of a newly installed computer and is capable of entirely running the ship. No crew is on board except for Capt. Crane. Another point is that during the conference before hand, the scientist tells Adm. Nelson that the technological breakthrough needed to make this computer possible wasn't expected for another twenty years. Since the show is set in the mid 1970's (well sometimes it is, it seems to vary quite a bit), that would mean the expected breakthrough should have occurred sometime in the mid 1990's - right when HAL was first operational! Who's crazy now?

There's even a scene where Capt. Crane is playing chess. (Okay, he is playing against himself and not the computer). But still ... And this computer didn't have a name, and it doesn't go crazy and try to kill everyone. Maybe I am crazy after all.

Somewhat interestingly, the scriptwriter, Robert Hamner, also wrote the script for Star Trek's "A Taste of Armageddon", a story that involved two planets who conducted their war solely with computers. This guy must have had a thing against computers. I wonder if years later he ever finally gave in and used a word processor, or if he stuck to his typewriter. At least typewriters are plotting to take over the world and destroy humanity like computers are. I once saw a documentary on that very subject. I think it was called something like Terminator.


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Resolutely Analog In A Digital World!