“I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

That is Hal 9000, all-purpose spaceship computer, declining an order from an astronaut to open the reentry doors. The scene is from the 1968 film “2001 — A Space Odyssey.” David Bowman (actor Keir Dullea) remains trapped in a small module, facing death.

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Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of “After the Cold War” (NYU Press and Macmillan). Readers can write to him at acyr@carthage.edu.

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