The Cosmic Abyss of 2001: beyond the Discovery

[@tombriggs5348]

Cut to the outside of the ship, and two rocks tumble by. Had they struck the ship it would have been the end of everything. No one even knew they were there. That is the capriciousness of space exploration.

[@badhippo]

99% boredom, and 1% sheer terror. You just described what my time in prison felt like.

[@marcoscaba3846]

The idea of the "Cosmic Abyss" is an interesting comparison. It fits with the legends and fears of the sailors during the age of exploration. From the fear of sailing over the edge of the world to the fantastic creatures that were supposed to live in the deep oceans. We have that today as shown in the Alien movie series.

[@rubyruby7573]

Yep But The Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction The First Humans Beyond Earth Were Not Astronauts But Cowboys Who Simply Ventured Into The Wrong Cave By Mere Chance In Search of Water To Drink The First Nationally Televised Alien Encounter Was The Barney And Betty Hill Story

[@MrRandomcommentguy]

I think the message of 2001 is ultimately positive. Dave Bowman overcomes the challenges of AI gone rogue and the hostility of space, confronts a wholly alien intelligence and is ultimately given all of their powers and knowledge.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

When I first glanced at your comment I misread _"...AI gone..."_ as _"Al Gore."_ 🤭

[@rubyruby7573]

As Arshia Once Said "navigating space is like navigating the ocean while blindfolded"

[@Willpower-74205]

Getting away from the rest of humanity is something I think I would like. Barring a psychotic AI, I sometimes find myself quite envious of Bowman and Poole, especially if the mission had gone as planned. Just a few others aside from myself aboard a ship traveling through the outer solar system. Aside from the daily routine, I'd find it quite peaceful. 😎👍

[@davidwuhrer6704]

Space is so dark that out at Jupiter's orbit, unfiltered sunlight is no brighter than inside a room on Earth. Space is so cold that humans would be cooked alive if spaceships didn't have radiators. Space is an unimaginably vast void, devoid of predators and telemarketers.

[@MatthewCaunsfield]

Great stuff, quite spooky!

[@sigbauer9782]

The age of the universe is only the part we can see.

[@TurtleTrackin]

“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? "For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.” (Psalms 8:3-5, KJV)

[@jsl151850b]

*"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands."* *Psalm 19:1*

[@therichieboy]

This is a superbly disturbing interpretation of the book and our existence.

[@TheRyujinLP]

I don't know, I've never been bothered by the idea there is no already planned point to our existence universe isn't laid out for us. That's just mean we have to find out own meaning and make the universe work for us just as our fore bearers did to this world. I'm more then willing to take my fate into my own hands and make the world fix my plans.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

*"Even More Outer Space"* 😊

[@TairnKA]

In 2010, Bowman tells HAL that he'll be with him so I wonder "what would HAL look like", a baseball sized red sphere, flying around Bowman? ;-)

[@mikevanroy9356]

The Discovery is not moving at warp speed but compared to a car or an aircraft carrier it is moving very, very fast. Could a pod launch from Discovery, perform some mission, and hope to catch up with it? Or would that only work if Discovery is stationary?

[@virag1132]

i guess you don't have the right frame of reference

[@exeterjedi6730]

The pod is also moving as fast as Discovery

[@TairnKA]

@@exeterjedi6730 If HAL was so smart and wanted to rid itself of Bowman all it needed to do is fire a half second or less of thrust from a maneuvering thruster (it may be doing that anyway, countering Jupiter's and/or IOs pull) and leave Bowman far enough behind that the pod will run out of power or air?

[@natemiller6389]

we need to be quite and not wake the wurms.

[@stampedetrail2003]

I don't think the ending is ambiguous, and I don't think it agrees with Clarke's book. What I see is HAL in competition with humanity to reach the monolith first, and transcend ahead of humans to become the star child.

[@virag1132]

yes, as soon a piece of alien technology is discovered by humanity, space stops being a cold, dead, infinite nothingness of sheer terror.

[@riogrande5761]

To the author, go watch the Sci Fi series "The Expanse" IMO, it is a more realistic look at space travel during the next few hundred years. Even it assumes we have a break though in space propulsion that allows us to travel to parts of the solar system in a matter of days rather than months or years. It assumes we are able to colonize Mars and other planetary bodies in our own solar system but there is no warp drive and no artificial gravity and traveling to other star systems. If anything, 2001 A Space Odyssey. Yes, 2001 soes imply there is a God, or gods, portrayed differently than the Bible presents. 2001 does make me appreciate the beauty of familiarity of terra firma.

[@JMDinOKC]

I have an opinion that most would call pessimistic but that I call realistic: I think there is a better than fair chance that the human race will go down to its extinction having never traveled farther from Earth than the Moon. Even if a handful of astronauts manage to travel to Mars, there will never be a self-sufficient human population there. Anyone who thinks otherwise has never stopped to consider the scale and magnitude of the difficulties, problems, dangers and risks of such an attempt. And to get to Venus or any other planet or moon in the solar system would be orders of magnitude more difficult and dangerous than getting to Mars. I DO think it is worth going back to the Moon. If we ARE to go anywhere else in the solar system, functioning Moon bases will be, or ought to be, an essential first step - despite what morons like Elon Musk think.

[@Matthew_Lawless]

Thank you for bashing Elon.

[@TurtleTrackin]

Being a Christian certainly helps. We contemplate a Being of unimaginable scale all the time.

[@Southwest_923WR]

We are ALL on this planet. Deal with it. YOU ARE NOT going to ever see, or have to deal with the "ABYSS". Go to the park and watch the kids play, homeless beg, lovers fight. It's EARTH, YOUR only place in n this vast universe.

[@rudolphguarnacci197]

Got that right!