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book1968

2001: A Space Odyssey

Disciplines:
britain
science fiction
technology
evolutionary biology/evolution

Summary

Arthur C. Clarke's 1968 science fiction novel — written simultaneously with Stanley Kubrick's film — about humanity's evolutionary encounter with alien intelligence through the monolith — the most philosophically ambitious science fiction novel.

Core Contribution

Creates the philosophical hard SF novel at maximum ambition — 2001's structure (prehistoric encounter with alien intelligence; HAL 9000's breakdown; Bowman's transformation) spans evolutionary time and uses science fiction to address the largest possible questions about consciousness, technology, and evolution.

Historical Influences

The Sentinel Kubrick

Intellectual Lineage

Arthur C. Clarke New American LibraryWritten simultaneously with Kubrick's screenplay

Allied Works

2001: A Space Odyssey Childhood's End Rendezvous with Rama

Contemporaries & Peers

No recorded contemporaries.

Minds Influenced

Science fiction AI narrative

Intellectual Posterity

2001: A Space Odyssey HAL 9000 MonolithFilm 'I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that'

Discussing

2001: A Space Odyssey

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