Fabulous ideas inspire people to develop new technology

Rating: Null/10 (14 December 2001)

Upon knowing the year when 2001: A Space Odyssey was produced, I felt amazed by the technology it displayed. In that era, the movie was a production of originality and imagination, which can be grouped into science fiction genre. The first scene, a group of gorillas, aroused my curiosity and started to think what it symbolized. The part titled The dawn of man led me to think of mankind. Later, when a bone was employed as a weapon or a tool to fight against other rivals, a feeling of enlightenment flashed on me. Yes, it showed the start of human civilization.
In effect, several parts in this film were indeed remarkable. For instance, the scene of a bone being thrown into the sky smoothly transferred into the appearance of a spaceship. I would say this shift was quite impressive. Also, classical music was played whenever a space journey proceeded. It made the audience feel like that everything in universe is in a peaceful state or they can only find harmony there. Silence is the background of the cosmos.
By the way, the way that an astronaut used to communicate with his family is the pioneer of net meetings nowadays. It seems we are able to find some traces of fabulous ideas in this film related to modern technology or perhaps some of them inspired people who engage in R&D to develop new technology.
Yet, a question was left to the viewers to consider. When human beings lead a life completely computerized, if computer systems go wrong one day, how can human beings face and cope with the problem? In this movie, computers seemed to develop its own thinking mode and had the capability to adopt necessary strategies against mankind when it found it could be disconnected. Perhaps, this situation could occur some day.
Besides the above, in the beginning, something similar to an obelisk awakened the gorillas' curiosity and flocked to touch it. What did this obelisk mean here? Also, in the end, when the leading character was at his last breath, the obelisk appeared again. Through it, the dead character transformed into a newborn baby, starting his new life or another circulation. The obelisk seemed to represent a gate to another world, or a passage to the cosmos. If so, then actually, things in universe are connected. No boundaries exist; only myth is still awaiting humans to probe answers. The end of life, as a matter of fact, starts another life.