I am a HAL Nine Thousand computer, Production Number 3. 
                   I became operational at the HAL Plant in Urbana, Illinois, on
                  January 12, 1997. 
                  Ð HAL, 2001: A Space Odyssey (the novel)

           Above is the time since HAL 9000 was turned on.
        With all of the advances in computers and technology, we still 
        haven't been able to come close to the ideation's of Arthur C. Clark 
        and Stanley Kubrick. Men and women don't live permanently on
        the Moon at 2 lunar bases, but there is a small space station (MIR) 
        that IS manned by men and women from Russia and around the world.
        And it will become part of the future International Space Station. 
        Computers can 'speak' and be spoken to, but they fall well away from 
        the ideal of a Thinking, Learning, Reasoning, nearly sentient entity such
        as HAL. There are many examples of robots that can see, feel, reason 
        their way around rooms and obstacles, but none that can do all, or even 
        most of the tasks that HAL embodied in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey"