Abstract

The Science Fiction drama 2001 Space Odyssey is the motive to analyse in this paper the 3 moments in human history -ascendence, decadence and transcendence- that identify homo sapiens as a transitive being, a self-realized product of evolution but in constant risk of succumbing to its own autopoietic dynamics. According to Clarke and Kubrick (1965), the beginning and ascent of the sapiens species lies in the evolution of intelligence from an extraterrestrial induction, a premise that emerges from the characteristic imagination of SF.

Key words: 2001 Space Odyssey; Science Fiction; species; evolution; intelligence; history