Conflict!

Women confuse me.

Ok, well that’s not a news flash.  I think women confuse most men.

In the movies 2001/2010 we’re introduced to Hal.  A “thinking” computer that goes nuts because he’s given conflicting instructions.  He’s built to process information without distortion or concealment, but when the NSA tells him to lie about the monolith he goes nuts and kills the crew.

I think I have a unique understanding of what Hal was going through.

You can’t tell a guy you don’t want him to complain and then ask him what’s wrong and expect an answer when the answer carries a penalty itself.  You can’t tell him to take the initiative and then complain that he did it wrong.

And you can’t expect him to just ‘be happy” on general principle.

You can only expect him to do his best to interpret conflicting instructions and hope he doesn’t lose it and space the crew.