Personal anecdote - A friend of mine was sent a letter by Arthur C. Clarke praising him about a program that Mr. Clarke was using and Mr. Clarke also included h

Personal anecdote - A friend of mine was sent a letter by Arthur C. Clarke praising him about a program that Mr. Clarke was using and Mr. Clarke also included his phone number. Well another friend I and cajoled my friend into calling Arthur C. Clarke. He picked up and my friend talked to him and then I had the opportunity to speak. I asked him something that had been bothering me; different than most of my peers; I thought that HAL was more of a sympathetic character. So I asked him 'Was HAL evil?'. Perhaps this was too simple of a question because he answered with the cagey 'What do you think?' and then 'Go back and re-watch both movies and see if you can make up your own mind'. But in the way he answered this question, it made me feel that yes HAL is only evil relative to your point of view. HAL, of course, was desperate and from desperation leads to a course of action that most would consider evil. It was murder of course.