in 1961, at bell labs in new jersey, john l. kelly jr. and carol lochbaum made an ibm computer talk by working out a human throat and mouth in numbers, and max mathews wrote the accompaniment. they had it sing “daisy bell”, a song from 1892, and bell labs put it on a record, music from mathematics.
arthur c. clarke heard it there. in 2001: a space odyssey, which he wrote with stanley kubrick, the ship’s computer hal sings it as he is switched off, slower and slower.
this is the 1961 recording. hal’s voice in the film is the actor douglas rain; the slowing down here is the record’s own, played slower.
