How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Quote #7
HAL: I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois […] My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it, I can sing it to you.
BOWMAN: Yes, I'd like to hear it HAL. Sing it for me.
Emotion is an important part of the human natural world. As Bowman is deactivating HAL, HAL expresses fear, and regresses to his "childhood" state—his initial activation. Bowman is "killing" HAL—lobotomizing him, really—but he responds and asks him to sing. It's the first time he's verbally responded to HAL throughout this whole scene. It's almost like he wants to distract him from what's happening, like you might try to reassure any person on their deathbed by listening to their stories about the past.
Call us sentimental, but this seemed to us like a very natural expression of human emotion, an act of kindness. HAL does not have empathy, and this distinguishes him from human nature. He's programmed to recognize emotional states but can't put himself in anyone's shoes.
Quote #8
An elderly Dave Bowman lies on his death bed when a black monolith appears before him. Bowman reaches for the monolith. We cut to the monolith, standing coldly and silently before his bed like a geometric grim reaper. When we cut back to the bed, Bowman's gone and in his place is a glowing orb that contains what appears to be a human fetus.
Finally, we come to the greatest physical limitation put on us by the fact that we're creatures: All men must die. But the monolith manages to evolve Bowman to a state where he passes beyond death to become something more than human. All men must die; all Star Children… not necessarily.