Why "Daisy" in 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Why did the HAL 9000 computer sing "Daisy Bell" in the 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, written by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke?

Maybe this video clip, taken from a documentary where Arthur C. Clarke is visiting Bell Labs back in the early 60s, will give you an answer to that question.

Link [YouTube] - via Fanboy

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The voice synthesis part seems to be in its entirety on the record Album "First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival" published by Creative Computing in 1979. It also includes a really nice computer generated Toccata. Hey it's on-line here:


The last track is the one.

make sure to check out:
J.S. Bach/Toccata & Fugue in d Minor
J.S. Bach/Suite for Orchestra #2 in b minor (excerpt)
Johann Wanhal/Rondo from Sonata in B flat for Clarinet and Piano
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I heard the same recording around 1965-6, when my father was doing his doctoral research on computer voice recognition at Case Institute (now Case/Western) in Cleveland. At the time, the 'Daisy-voice' was astounding quality for a computer; my Dad's "advanced" setup could only generate and recognize the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 -- so maybe it could sing that Feist song from a couple years ago...
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I remember hearing this exact rendition in the mid 60s at a science museum in Ohio. It was right next to the working traffic light mock-up.
Cheap thrills for a ten year old.
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