You make some very valid points. And one thing that escaped me a little all those years ago was the thought that HAL had in fact been programmed to do what he did by callous humans. It all comes down to the programmers, always. However, be it fallible technology or ill intentioned humans, whatever it is, you still cannot totally trust the technology. In fact, thinking about the human element side of things, even more reason why I cannot trust the technology.