HAL 9000 Challenge

The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation recognizes that Sir Arthur’s work 2001: A Space Odyssey portrays a highly relevant and timely warning.  In 1968, HAL 9000 evoked an emotional and cautionary tale about one negative direction that advanced technologies could take us.  In that context, we created the HAL 9000 Challenge to inspire young people to come forward with ideas and imaginative ideas, designs, policies, programs, or whatever they feel would produce benefit to Earth’s inhabitants in a world increasingly dominated by AI and other advanced technologies.

The Foundation believes that Sir Arthur would join us in creating the HAL 9000 Challenge as an aspiration for a better future for humankind rather than as a dystopian intruder into our future.  He would cheer us forward as we tap the creativity and hopes of young people, fully digital citizens, balancing human-ness with the tools of a digital and high-tech world. He would welcome the powers of pairing young ideas with adult expertise in multiple domains, including science, technology, the arts, humanities, exploration, and/or policy.

When launched in 2025, the program will seek proposals submitted by a creative young generation that has grown among world-shifting technological developments that hold potential for ill and/or good.   It will place value on proposals that seek preservation and promotion of human imagination and well-being rather than its sublimation to AI and other scientific and technological innovations. Adult experts would be paired with selected youth with promising proposals so they could combine to convert the ideas into potentially actionable plans. The HAL 9000 Challenge would award youth with grants and exposure.

The HAL 9000 Challenge was developed by a diverse and creative group of leaders who believe that young people have potentially powerful insights, and therefore, can offer some creative approaches to ensuring a bright future amidst the dramatic and relentless changes of our tech-driven world.  Its intergenerational nature stems from recognizing the valuable role young people can also play in inspiring and challenging adults. 2024 is our critical year for raising funds to enable launch in 2025 of this unique intergenerational program.

The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation was founded in 1983 as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization to promote, enable and recognize the power of imagination to benefit humanity. If you are interested in becoming involved and/or providing financial support for this unique and timely program, please reach out to Walda Roseman, 2rosewanger@gmail.com, or Paul Julin, clarkefoundation@pm.me.