rab@well.UUCP (Bob Bickford) (04/28/86)
(WHAT line ea In a previous article, vis@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU (Tom Courtney) writes: > Gordon Joly writes: > > Mark leeper says:- > > > >> I talked to Clarke about 2001 in 1969 and he brought up the HAL/IBM > >> question himself. He said that it was just a surprising coincidence. > > > >With odds of 1/8788 against, maybe it was more a case of subconscious > >reasoning, as in Kekule's discovery of the structure of the benzene > >molecule, and in the deciphering of Samuel Pepys' diaries. And the odds > >must also take into account strings like S*X or BCA, musn't they? > > > The odds probably weren't so bad. Suppose Clarke was looking for a three > letter acronym that was actually a name? Then he's restricted to a much > smaller set of possibilities (HAL, SAL, SAM, ART, etc... [not ETC]). > Furthermore, after the fact, lots of things look like the odds were > too horrendous to be coincidence. Indeed. I am reminded of the oft-quoted observation that *every* bridge hand dealt has astronomical odds against it. The HAL/IBM coincidence would be interesting only if the "HAL" wasn't pronouncable. If Clarke had chosen "JCL" (now where have I heard *that* acronym....) then there would be little doubt of his inspiration. Simalarly if he had chosen "CDB" or "EFD"......... -- Robert Bickford {lll-crg,hplabs}!well!rab