HAL s dilemma huh This description of HAL s dilemma is so far off base not to mention uncited so it s going here before I rewrite it extensively I guess the nicest thing I can say is that there s some warm nostalgia for the way Wikipedia was in 2005 when we had all sorts of half baked completely pulled out of someone s ass WP OR OR ish conjecture like this in articles I read the book and I remember it quite well Only the first clause is true The rest of it sounds completely made up by someone who took the wrong drugs before trying to fake their book report HAL s dilemma results from the conflict between his general instruction to relay all information accurately with his specific instruction to conceal the true purpose of the mission from Bowman and Poole So he decides to resolve the conflict by arranging the accidental death of the crew the First Law of Robotics be damned