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Specs:
* 64kHz processor
* 4K of RAM
* 8" IBM hard
drives
* 12'13"x
6'9" x 20'7"
* Amber screen
terminal
* Speech/Voice
recognition
As you know, Uno Lirpa the
pathologist who did the autopsy on Einstein ended up actually keeping
Einstein's brain in his home in Tupperware. In the 1990's the brain was
transported across the country when a writer encouraged the pathologist to
return it to Einstein's daughter -a story made famous in the book Einstein's
Brain. How is this connected to our offering the HAL 9000 -perhaps the most
successful of computer actors- for sale? Read on.
Well it turns out that this same Lirpa was good buddies with
actor Keir Dullea who, when
he wasn't acting, was a Professor at Southern Illinois University in the
Computer Systems Lab where the HAL 9000 -the very same computer made famous in
Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Oddessy
had been built. In fact it was Dullea who had
recommended HAL for the part!
It seems Dullea had kept the
original HAL 9000 after it was taken off line shortly after production halted.
Though the Hal 9000 was still fully functional (and remains so to this day) it
was being eclipsed in performance by the BRANIAC computer also developed by the
academic pioneers at SIU. Dullea thought it cruel to
simply scrap HAL as HAL did have a measure of sentience and seemed to have
feelings. Also Dullea was comforted in late night
computer lab sessions by HAL's soulful rendition of
the song "Daisy".
The acting experience however was a bit much for HAL's 4K memory and he apparently believed Dullea to actually be "Dave" (who Dullea had played in the movie). HAL had for many years
felt his machine version of guilt after spacing "Dave" in Reel 4. In
what turned out to be a cyber mea culpa of sorts HAL became completely devoted
to Dullea until his death in 2001.
In 1998, being unable to care for HAL anymore Dullea put HAL in the care of his friend Uno Lirpa -the very same pathologist that had kept Einstein's
brain in Tupperware all these years!
Since then Lirpa has kept HAL in his garage occasionally
firing him up to converse about the 1976 Plymouth Barracuda Lirpa was restoring. HAL became quite a car buff and was enamored
with Nascar though he'd never
actually seen a race. Lirpa bought him a NASCAR hat which HAL proudly wore on
his console until recently. In a touching gesture (especially
from a computer!) HAL asked that it be buried with "Dave" when
Dullea passed on in 2001.
Lirpa, 89, is now quite unable to perambulate about in the
garage anymore and would like to see HAL go to a good home where he will get
turned on once in a while. He had a lengthy and heart wrenching discussion with
his wife about putting HAL on E-bay (he, of course, turned HAL off first) but
felt HAL deserved a more respectable way to move on.
The Greene Sheet immediately came to mind as a place of unquestioned integrity and so it is that we proudly offer the original HAL 9000 for sale. Lirpa will not ship HAL -you will need to come pick him up. Though HAL is a piece of movie history and a computer, potential buyers should be ready to provide HAL with the companionship he craves. He can be a bit suspicious at times and is always "mission focused" but he is a great talker and not a bad chess player.