Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: "Carlos E. R." Newsgroups: alt.comp.os.windows-11 Subject: Re: 2001:A Space Odyssey, SpaceX, A.I. Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2026 22:54:38 +0200 Lines: 90 Message-ID: References: <110k0h2$327l4$1@toylet.eternal-september.org> <2r603l96mqhqn1k49l589062p70f1iloec@4ax.com> <110sc20$1da7v$1@dont-email.me> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net OCZ97W+76mWt6Oybt+G9mwLhsokSoFb6delMBcqvdXelkE0cx4 Cancel-Lock: sha1:NCFx7Q1yVIaeBT1oGZ3eGwQ+Q8c= sha256:efnMSRXpy/iaVbqlktcORKYSEk9lBDYx9cQWgEGVsrw= User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Content-Language: en-GB In-Reply-To: <110sc20$1da7v$1@dont-email.me> Xref: csiph.com alt.comp.os.windows-11:32407 On 2026-06-16 22:35, Paul wrote: > On Mon, 6/15/2026 3:30 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote: >> On 2026-06-15 17:35, croy wrote: >>> On Sun, 14 Jun 2026 14:37:49 -0700, a425couple >>> wrote: >>> >>>> On 6/13/26 09:29, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote: >>>>> >>>>> HAL 9000: "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that" - YouTube >>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> Dave did not act mad. >>>> He just did what he needed to do. >>>> And about a hour later he started disconnecting circuit boards, >>>> in effect performing a prefrontal lobotomy. >>> >>> It seems to me that it would have been much easier and much quicker to >>> simply kill the power to the computer. >> >> A computer that was not designed to have power cut ever. An integral part of the ship design. >> A procedure that was not described in the documentation. >> >> And parts of the computer functions had to be kept running. >> > > The design of the ship, is pure poetic license. > > The thought that goes into designing space projects, gives some > idea "who is in control" and "how much trust we have in the hardware" > > https://increment.com/software-architecture/in-space-no-one-can-hear-you-kernel-panic/ > > Even back in that day, they knew about what architectures > would be needed for reliable space flight. But then, you > would not have much of a movie, if the thing was lashed > down properly :-) > > That's the same flaw the Forbin Project makes. The idea is > all wrong, after about the first five minutes of the movie. > But it is what it is. > > Even without knowing what kind of AI that HAL9000 was, Heuristic ALgorithmical :-) > it's still a non-deterministic design where you can't > add your hardware analysis to detect faults. If you were > putting a HAL9000 on a real space ship, it would be air gapped > and it definitely would not get to steer anything (directly). > It would be, in effect, a hand calculator... that you could > switch off. And the "real/procedural/dumb" 1+1 computers > would do the real work. Ah, but HAL did have control of the ship. It could pilot it. Intentionally, so that the mission would go on with a dead crew. > > As an example of a "violation-of-principle", one of the > Musk ships has totally autonomous docking at the ISS. You're > not supposed to do that. But we'll find out some day. The hard way. > If NASA designed the thing, it would not do that. You would be > able to switch off the autonomy, grab the 3D controls and finish > the job manually. If you noticed it was going wrong. Any time there > are issues with thrusters as a ship approaches the ISS, it is blocked > from approaching the ISS any closer. > > While you can have hand-wavey scifi doo dads, the real > world is boring... and hard work for somebody. And yes, it > has A/B buses, breakers and switches. > > What's the thing you fear most in space flight ? It's > the same thing as onboard a naval vessel. It's a fire on board. > You have electricals ? Then you have breakers and switches > to shut that off. If HAL9000 had caught fire, then there > have to be protective devices to help subdue the fire. The > design of spaceships, is just like the design of submarines. > Bulkheads. Air-tight doors. Isolate the chamber with the problem. You have a point there. If there is a fire, just put on the suits, or get inside designated panic rooms, and vent the ship. Easy peasy. -- Cheers, Carlos E.R. ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;