Dr. Vasili Orlov 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!

Dr. Heywood Floyd: [Looks around the table to see the cosmonauts all nervous and edgy; sighs, takes off glasses] All right, what's going on here?

Tanya Kirbuk: What do you mean?

Dr. Heywood Floyd: Well, I may not be the swiftest guy in the world, even when I'm not hung over, but I do seem to remember a process where you people ask me questions and I give you answers and then I ask questions and you give me answers and that's the way we find out things. I think I read that in a manual somewhere.

Tanya Kirbuk: Your government wanted us to awaken you when we reported our findings. We did that. You are here to help us reactivate the Discovery and its computer systems because that is United States territory. You are authorized to observe other aspects of our mission. We have no other obligation.

Dr. Vladimir Rudenko: A lot has happened while you have been asleep.

Dr. Vasili Orlov: It is not our choice.

Tanya Kirbuk: The problem in Central America is growing worse.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: This looks as if you've detected the presence of chlorophyll.

Tanya Kirbuk: [interrupts him] The United States is threatening a naval blockade.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: [interrupts her in turn] There's nothing but ice down there so how can there be any chlorophyll?

Tanya Kirbuk: [interrupts him again] You know and I know that my country cannot allow a blockade.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: How fast it is moving?

Tanya Kirbuk: [continues to talk over him] We are under instruction...

Dr. Heywood Floyd: Listen, just because our governments are behaving like asses doesn't mean we have to. We're supposed to be scientists, not politicians, how fast?

Tanya Kirbuk: Doctor Floyd, I am also an officer of the Soviet Air Force...

Dr. Heywood Floyd: HOW FAST?

Dr. Vasili Orlov: One meter per minute.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: [speaking to her] Don't worry, I'm just observing.

[speaking to him]

Dr. Heywood Floyd: Toward the sun?

Dr. Vasili Orlov: Yes.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: That's incredible.

Tanya Kirbuk: We are going to send a probe down.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: GOOD.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: Maybe Max should extend the pod's arms. Put the hands out.

Dr. Vasili Orlov: Are you serious?

Dr. Heywood Floyd: Yes.

Walter Curnow: I don't know about you, but that thing with its claws in the air would scare the piss out of me.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: Maybe you're right.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: You've done a spectral analysis?

Dr. Vasili Orlov: Of course I have.

[pause]

Dr. Heywood Floyd: And...

Dr. Vasili Orlov: And what?

Dr. Heywood Floyd: Dr. Orlov, I'm not taking a survey, if you've done the analysis what are the results?

Dr. Vasili Orlov: Nothing conclusive.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: Molecular breakdown?

Dr. Vasili Orlov: If you look carefully at the last page of the data, you will find the answer.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: [after looking at the data] I don't understand this, if this data's correct, then there's something down there.

[pause]

Dr. Heywood Floyd: Can't be correct?

Dr. Vasili Orlov: It is correct.

Dr. Heywood Floyd: Is it moving?

Dr. Vasili Orlov: Yes.

[long pause]