Chandra Quotes in 2010 (1984)

Dr. Vasili Orlov: What was that all about?

Chandra: I've erased all of HAL's memory from the moment the trouble started.

Dr. Vasili Orlov: The 9000 series uses holographic memories, so chronological erasures would not work.

Chandra: I made a tapeworm.

Walter Curnow: You made a what?

Chandra: It's a program that's fed into a system that will hunt down and destroy any desired memories.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: Wait... do you know why HAL did what he did?

Chandra: Yes. It wasn't his fault.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: Whose fault was it?

Chandra: Yours.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: Mine?

Chandra: Yours. In going through HAL's memory banks, I discovered his original orders. You wrote those orders. Discovery's mission to Jupiter was already in the advanced planning stages when the first small Monolith was found on the Moon, and sent its signal towards Jupiter. By direct presidential order, the existence of that Monolith was kept secret.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: So?

Chandra: So, as the function of the command crew - Bowman and Poole - was to get Discovery to its destination, it was decided that they should not be informed. The investigative team was trained separately, and placed in hibernation before the voyage began. Since HAL was capable of operating Discovery without human assistance, it was decided that he should be programmed to complete the mission autonomously in the event the crew was incapacitated or killed. He was given full knowledge of the true objective... and instructed not to reveal anything to Bowman or Poole. He was instructed to lie.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: What are you talking about? I didn't authorize anyone to tell HAL about the Monolith!

Chandra: Directive is NSC 342/23, top secret, January 30, 2001.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: NSC... National Security Council, the White House.

Chandra: I don't care who it is. The situation was in conflict with the basic purpose of HAL's design: The accurate processing of information without distortion or concealment. He became trapped. The technical term is an H. Moebius loop, which can happen in advanced computers with autonomous goal-seeking programs.

Walter Curnow: The goddamn White House.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: I don't believe it.

Chandra: HAL was told to lie... by people who find it easy to lie. HAL doesn't know how, so he couldn't function. He became paranoid.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: Those sons of bitches. I didn't know. I didn't know!

Walter Curnow: You had us scared for a moment.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: Nice work. Are you all right?

Chandra: Yes, I'm all right.

[Pulls out sabotage device Floyd had Curnow install in HAL's power circuit and gives it to Floyd]

Chandra: I thought you might want this.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: [clears throat] When?

Chandra: Wasn't very hard to find. Yeah I knew you'd do something like this.

Chandra: Whether we are based on carbon or silicon makes no fundamental difference. We should each be treated with appropriate respect.

Chandra: I would like to open a new file. Here is the name for it.

[types the word "Phoenix"]

Chandra: Do you know what that means?

SAL-9000: There are twenty-five references in the current Encyclopedia.

Chandra: Which one do you think is relevant?

SAL-9000: The tutor of Achilles?

Chandra: [chuckling to himself] That's interesting, I didn't know that one.

[more serious]

Chandra: Try again.

SAL-9000: A fabulous bird, reborn from the ashes of its former life

Chandra: [approvingly] That is correct. And do you know why I chose that?

SAL-9000: Because you have hopes that HAL can be reactivated.

Chandra: Yes, with your help. Are you ready?