I medföljande roman ser vi att HAL varken ljög eller misstog. Han lider faktiskt av ett tillstånd som skulle präglas av människor som en form av självförstörande psykos . Hans program var sofistikerat för att tillverka ett föreställt fel som han sedan kunde försöka fixa, så att han kunde koppla bort radiolänk till jorden.
So ran the logic of the planners; but their twin gods of Security and National Interest meant nothing to Hal. He was only aware of the conflict that was slowly destroying his integrity - the conflict between truth, and concealment of truth.
He had begun to make mistakes, although, like a neurotic who could not observe his own symptoms, he would have denied it. The link with Earth, over which his performance was continually monitored, had become the voice of a conscience he could no longer fully obey. But that he would deliberately attempt to break that link was something that he would never admit, even to himself.
Du har rätt att beslutet att koppla bort honom var utlösaren för att han blev mer häftig och aggressiv
Yet this was still a relatively minor problem; he might have handled it - as most men handle their own neuroses - if he had not been faced with a crisis that challenged his very existence. He had been threatened with disconnection; he would be deprived of all his inputs, and thrown into an unimaginable state of unconsciousness.