This is a portion of an interview Stanley Kubrick did with Playboy magazine back in 1968 for his movie 2001: a space odyssey. Even though this interview is 30 years out of date, most of the info is not. Stanley Kubrick vision of the world in many different ways is still very much relevant today and believed by many people to this day. Out of all the interviews Kubrick did, this one he was able to show his intelligence the most on different subjects other than film. I will post portions of the interviews at different times.
"Probably the most intelligent man I've ever met."
-Arthur C. Clarke on Stanley Kubrick
"People who are not awed by the universe have no soul."
-Albert Einstein
-----------------------------------
PLAYBOY: Speaking of what it?s all about - if you?ll allow us to return to the
philosophical interpretation of 2001 - would you agree with those critics who call it a
profoundly religious film?
KUBRICK: I will say that the God concept is at the heart of 2001 - but not any
traditional, anthropomorphic image of God. I don?t believe in any of Earth?s monotheistic
religions, but I do believe that one can construct an intriguing scientific definition of God,
once you accept the fact that there are approximately 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone,
that each star is a life-giving sun and that there are approximately 100 billion galaxies in
just the visible universe. Given a planet in a stable orbit, not too hot and too cold, and
given a few billion years of chance chemical reactions created by the interaction of a sun?s
energy on the planet?s chemicals, it?s fairly certain that life in one form or another will
eventually emerge. It?s reasonable to assume that there must be, in fact, countless billions
of such planets where biological life has arisen, and the odds of some proportion of such
life developing intelligence are high. Now, the sun is by no means and old star and its
planets are mere children in cosmic age, so it seems likely that there are billions of planets
in the universe not where intelligent life is on a lower scale than man but other billions
where it is approximately equal and others still where it is hundreds of thousands of
million years in advance of us. When you think of the giant technological strides man has
made in a few millennia - less than a microsecond in the chronology of the universe - can
you imagine the evolutionary development that much older life forms have taken? They
may have progressed from biological species, which are fragile shells for the mind at best,
into immortal machine entities - and then, over innumerable eons, they could emerge from
the chrysalis of matter transformed into beings of pure energy and spirit. Their
potentialities would be limitless and their intelligence ungraspable by humans.
PLAYBOY: Even assuming the cosmic evolutionary path you suggest, what has this to do
with the nature of God?
KUBRICK: Everything - because these beings would be gods to the billions of less
advanced races in the universe, just as man would appear a god to an ant that somehow
comprehended man?s existence. They would possess the twin attributes of all dieties -
omniscience and omnipotence. These entities might be in telepathic communication
throughout the cosmos and thus be aware of everything that occurs, tapping every
intelligent mind as effortlessly as we switch on the radio; they might not be limited by the
speed of light and their presence could penetrate to the farthest corners of the universe,
they might possess complete mastery over matter and energy; and in their final
evolutionary stage, they might develop into an integrated collective immortal
consciousness. They would be incomprehensible to us except as gods; and if the tendrils of
their consciousness ever brushed men?s minds, it is only the hand of God we could grasp
as an explanation.
PLAYBOY: If such creatures do exist, why should they be interested in man?
KUBRICK: They may not be. But why should man be interested in microbes? The motive
of such beings would be as alien to us as their intelligence.
PLAYBOY: In 2001, such incorporeal creatures seem to manipulate our destiny and
control our evolution, though whether for good or evil - or both or neither - remains
unclear. Do you really believe it?s possible that man is a cosmic plaything of such entities?
KUBRICK: I don?t really believe anything about them; how can I? Mere speculation on
the possibility of their existence is sufficiently overwhelming, without attempting to
decipher their motives. The important point is that all standard attributes assigned to God
in our history could equally well be the characteristics of biological entities who billions of
years ago were at a stage of development similar to man?s own and evolved into
something as remote from man as man is remote from the primordial ooze from which he
first emerged.
PLAYBOY: In this cosmic phlyogeny you?ve described, isn?t it possible that there might
be forms of intelligent life on an even higher scale than these enities of pure energy -
perhaps as far removed from them as they are from us?
KUBRICK: Of course there could be; in an infinite, eternal universe, the point is anything
is possible, and it?s unlikely that we can even begin to scratch the surface of the full range
of possibilities. But at a time [1968] when man is preparing to set foot on the Moon, I
think it is necessary to open up our Earth bound minds to such speculation. No one knows
what?s waiting for us in the universe. I think it was a prominent astronomer who wrote
recently, ?Sometimes I think we are alone, and sometime I think we?re not. In either case,
the idea is quite staggering.?
~rougerum
[This message has been edited by rougerum (edited 10-26-2001).]
"Probably the most intelligent man I've ever met."
-Arthur C. Clarke on Stanley Kubrick
"People who are not awed by the universe have no soul."
-Albert Einstein
-----------------------------------
PLAYBOY: Speaking of what it?s all about - if you?ll allow us to return to the
philosophical interpretation of 2001 - would you agree with those critics who call it a
profoundly religious film?
KUBRICK: I will say that the God concept is at the heart of 2001 - but not any
traditional, anthropomorphic image of God. I don?t believe in any of Earth?s monotheistic
religions, but I do believe that one can construct an intriguing scientific definition of God,
once you accept the fact that there are approximately 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone,
that each star is a life-giving sun and that there are approximately 100 billion galaxies in
just the visible universe. Given a planet in a stable orbit, not too hot and too cold, and
given a few billion years of chance chemical reactions created by the interaction of a sun?s
energy on the planet?s chemicals, it?s fairly certain that life in one form or another will
eventually emerge. It?s reasonable to assume that there must be, in fact, countless billions
of such planets where biological life has arisen, and the odds of some proportion of such
life developing intelligence are high. Now, the sun is by no means and old star and its
planets are mere children in cosmic age, so it seems likely that there are billions of planets
in the universe not where intelligent life is on a lower scale than man but other billions
where it is approximately equal and others still where it is hundreds of thousands of
million years in advance of us. When you think of the giant technological strides man has
made in a few millennia - less than a microsecond in the chronology of the universe - can
you imagine the evolutionary development that much older life forms have taken? They
may have progressed from biological species, which are fragile shells for the mind at best,
into immortal machine entities - and then, over innumerable eons, they could emerge from
the chrysalis of matter transformed into beings of pure energy and spirit. Their
potentialities would be limitless and their intelligence ungraspable by humans.
PLAYBOY: Even assuming the cosmic evolutionary path you suggest, what has this to do
with the nature of God?
KUBRICK: Everything - because these beings would be gods to the billions of less
advanced races in the universe, just as man would appear a god to an ant that somehow
comprehended man?s existence. They would possess the twin attributes of all dieties -
omniscience and omnipotence. These entities might be in telepathic communication
throughout the cosmos and thus be aware of everything that occurs, tapping every
intelligent mind as effortlessly as we switch on the radio; they might not be limited by the
speed of light and their presence could penetrate to the farthest corners of the universe,
they might possess complete mastery over matter and energy; and in their final
evolutionary stage, they might develop into an integrated collective immortal
consciousness. They would be incomprehensible to us except as gods; and if the tendrils of
their consciousness ever brushed men?s minds, it is only the hand of God we could grasp
as an explanation.
PLAYBOY: If such creatures do exist, why should they be interested in man?
KUBRICK: They may not be. But why should man be interested in microbes? The motive
of such beings would be as alien to us as their intelligence.
PLAYBOY: In 2001, such incorporeal creatures seem to manipulate our destiny and
control our evolution, though whether for good or evil - or both or neither - remains
unclear. Do you really believe it?s possible that man is a cosmic plaything of such entities?
KUBRICK: I don?t really believe anything about them; how can I? Mere speculation on
the possibility of their existence is sufficiently overwhelming, without attempting to
decipher their motives. The important point is that all standard attributes assigned to God
in our history could equally well be the characteristics of biological entities who billions of
years ago were at a stage of development similar to man?s own and evolved into
something as remote from man as man is remote from the primordial ooze from which he
first emerged.
PLAYBOY: In this cosmic phlyogeny you?ve described, isn?t it possible that there might
be forms of intelligent life on an even higher scale than these enities of pure energy -
perhaps as far removed from them as they are from us?
KUBRICK: Of course there could be; in an infinite, eternal universe, the point is anything
is possible, and it?s unlikely that we can even begin to scratch the surface of the full range
of possibilities. But at a time [1968] when man is preparing to set foot on the Moon, I
think it is necessary to open up our Earth bound minds to such speculation. No one knows
what?s waiting for us in the universe. I think it was a prominent astronomer who wrote
recently, ?Sometimes I think we are alone, and sometime I think we?re not. In either case,
the idea is quite staggering.?
~rougerum
[This message has been edited by rougerum (edited 10-26-2001).]
