Hal
- There's one telescope aimed at earth on Discovery. Bowman sometimes looks through it.
- He thinks about how he'll be rich and famous. Again, he's not super interesting.
- But now, at last, more than a third of the way through, the book introduces its one memorable character—Hal.
- Hal's a computer.
- There's a bunch of tech gibberish about how people managed to invent artificial intelligence.
- Then tech gibberish about how awesome Hal is.
- Then finishes up with saying that awesome tech gibberish Hal might be forced to take over control of the mission if everyone died somehow. Foreshadowing, again, but in a computer-y way.