Plot: Colossal Complexity (it's in the Hands)

There is a special type of head line that is long, extends straight across the hand and terminates about ½ inch before the edge of the palm. See a picture at www.AcademyofHandAnalysis.org under Articles. Check your own hands to see if you have one. If you, or someone you know has one, ponder the following.

While no one marker in the hand defines a person, some characteristics can be snared in individual markings.

Richard Unger, Director of the International Institute of Hand Analysis, named this head line after the Super Computer in the science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey filmed in 1968. I remember seeing the movie in the theater, but recently watched it again to refresh the details.

HAL 9000 was born in 1992. HAL was the brain and nervous system of the Pan Am space ship that was on a secret mission traveling from Earth to Jupiter.

HAL was the central processing unit that controlled the food supply, fuel consumption, cryogenic human hibe
ation quarters, pod flight crafts, communications, oxygen, cooling, and everything for the whole space ship. Its job was to detect any problems and flag the errors/failures and malfunctions and to report accordingly.

HAL was highly intelligent. He was the most reliable computer ever made. He was foolproof and incapable of error. HAL was constantly occupied, fully used. ‘He’ talked, he was curious and engaging. He demonstrated emotions so that the crew could better connect with him (perhaps calculated). He knew birth dates and said “Happy Birthday”. He played chess with astronaut Paul (and beat Paul, of course). He asked to see the drawing of one of the artist pilot’s. He recognized faces, voices, emotions, fears and could read lips.

He said, ”I find things difficult to put out of my mind.”

Hal was all about reliability, analysis, facts, and solutions. On a good day, he put things together in orderly fashion. He was the ultimate synthesizer – fusing and blending all the data input to create the appropriate data output.

In the end, having a bad day, HAL went haywire; he no longer had big enough problems to solve. He over analyzed the little problems. He obsessed on what wasn’t working in his relationships with the crew. He actually plotted for and let a crew member get ‘lost in space’ because he thought there was scheming against him – which they was.

Owners of this long head line can care for and feed their HAL 9000 by engaging in big problems. The more complicated the better. Synthesizing pieces of fabric for an elaborate quilt or reorganizing entire corporations may suit Mr. HAL depending on other features in the hands.

The Super Computer head line has definite mental requirements to employ – large, important projects with massive data arrangement.

How much is enough? Watch your own good day and bad day results and adjust your cerebral control panel accordingly.

And some say, “It’s just a movie.”