2001: A Space Odyssey Technology and Modernization Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

He was only aware of the conflict that was slowly destroying his integrity—the conflict between truth, and concealment of truth. (27.7)

This is presented as some sort of programming glitch or conflict—but in practice it seems much more like the sort of thing that would upset a human person type brain. It's a moral conflict—and really the only moral conflict in the whole novel. The result is that moral conflicts are presented in technological terms; morality is a glitch in the system.

Quote #8

"…primitive races have often failed to survive the encounter with higher civilizations. Anthropologists talk of 'cultural shock': we may have to prepare the entire human race for such a shock." (30.210)

These days, anthropologists try to avoid talking about "primitive races" or "higher civilizations". Cultures with stone-age technology aren't necessarily backwards, nor are they fossil relics. In some ways some of those cultures might be seen as more advanced than highly technological ones (in terms of equitable distribution of goods, for example, or in terms of richness of interpersonal relations). This speech about "primitive races" is supposed to sound scientific and rational and modern, but it actually sounds kind of prejudiced and out of date. That's the danger with science-fiction; your future is always at risk of looking quaint and old-fashioned.

Quote #9

The feeble energies it contained were no possible menace to him, but he preferred a cleaner sky. (47.2)

Space-baby Bowman uses his future technology to blast the evil nuclear weapons, saving earth from the bad technology. Nuclear weapons are one of the few technologies in the novel that are clearly marked as ominous or bad. But, predictably, the solution to them isn't less technology, or better relations with people, but more futuristic alien power. The answer to problematic progress is more progress.