2001: A Space Odyssey

Bowman spends most of his time on the Control Deck, where he can keep a lookout for threats. He hardly sleeps but merely catnaps. Bowman reasons that though the creatures who left the monolith on the Moon had a connection with Saturn, they likely did not originate on such an inhospitable planet. If they came from our solar system but have never been heard from, they must be extinct. He speculates that they might come from beyond Earth’s solar system but believes that it is not possible to travel between stars because of the “impassable barrier of the speed of light” (169). He speculates about minority views that travel between stars might be possible if a species were very long-lived or if voyages spanned multiple generations. He also questions whether the speed of light is necessarily a barrier as it is laid out in the Special Theory of Relativity; perhaps there could be shortcuts like “wormholes in space” (170). Bowman’s studies also touch on “anthropomorphic thinking” (170), with some scientists noting that extraterrestrials might differ wildly from humans due to different evolutionary paths. Bowman discovers that some believe that advanced beings wouldn’t have organic bodies but rather durable replacements that allow those beings to live forever. The brain might even be replaced and “the conflict between mind and machine […] resolved at last in the eternal truce of complete symbiosis” (172). Others speculate still further that a robot body might only be a stage of development, the ultimate destination of which is “spirit” or even “God” (172).

Traveling alone, Bowman keeps the ship’s sound system running for companionship. Craving human voices, he initially listens to poetry, but soon the concerns of “Shaw, Ibsen and Shakespeare” seem “remote” and petty (173). He switches to opera but stops when Verdi’s Requiem Mass, in particular the “Dies Irae,” thunders ominously through the ship and “[leaves] him completely shattered” (174). From then on, he only listens to instrumental classical music— “the frozen thoughts of a brain that had been dust for twice a hundred years” (174). The ship approaches Saturn; a “glorious spectacle” with the naked eye and “unbelievable” through the telescope. The rings of Saturn are “ephemeral” and being destroyed by gravitational forces. They were created two million or three million years ago, the time that humankind came into being.

Discovery approaches Saturn and passes beyond the boundary of Phoebe, its outermost moon. Bowman sees Japetus and is convinced it is the correct destination since it has a “distinctive” and “strange” geography; one side is dark, while the other is “dominated by a brilliant white oval” (177). This oval is “perfectly symmetrical” (177). Discovery’s rendezvous with Japetus relies on precise calculations and, if missed, will not be replicable for years as the ship orbits Saturn.

As the ship approaches Japetus, Bowman becomes aware of “a disturbing obsession”: that the bright oval shape on the moon’s surface is “a huge, empty eye, staring at him” (181). He doesn’t mention this in his communications with Mission Control because he thinks they will believe him delusional. As the ship approaches Japetus, Bowman worries that the remaining fuel won’t be sufficient to meet the crucial rendezvous, but by the end of the chapter the ship is in orbit around the moon.

As he nears the surface, Bowman describes it in the first person in a message to Mission Control. He sees a large black building, the “big brother” of TMA-1 (183).

The Star Gate has orbited Saturn for three million years, “waiting for a moment of destiny that might never come” (185). Its creation shattered a moon and created the rings of Saturn. The wait is over because a civilization has left its “planetary cradle,” marking the climax of an “ancient experiment” (185). The experimenters were not “remotely human,” but they were “flesh and blood” (185); spurred by “awe,” “wonder,” and “loneliness,” they searched space for other life-forms. They observed evolution on many planets and saw how fragile the development of intelligent life could be, so they began to nurture “Mind.” When they visited Earth, they knew they would never return, but they left their “servants”—the monoliths—behind. The experimenters have since transcended physical bodies and captured their intelligence in patterns of light. They are now creatures of pure energy, but they remember their own evolution and continue to watch over their ancestors’ experiments.

Bowman describes his descent to Mission Control. He plans to visit the monolith. The perspective shifts to that of the Star Gate, which sensed Bowman’s approach. It knows it is being probed but does nothing. When it sees Bowman’s pod approaching, it awakens, as it was ordered to do when it was made. It has “memories” and “logic circuits.”

As he leaves the ship to explore the surface, Bowman views the Discovery from space and looks back; at this distance, it is possible to look directly at the sun, which is a bright but tiny disk that gives no heat. He worries about the communication system and whether his messages are reaching Earth, which by now is an hour and a half away at the speed of sound. He worries that he will go missing and no one will ever know what became of him. He approaches the monolith, and it eclipses his view of the sky. As he approaches, he continues to communicate with Mission Control, sending messages describing his experience. He suddenly stops speaking because he can’t describe what he is seeing; the solid monolith has revealed that it has “infinite depths […] down a vertical shaft” that is full of stars (192). That is the final message he sends back to Earth.

The Star Gates open and then close again, and Bowman disappears. The ship remains, sending messages back to Earth that they will not be able to interpret.