2001 is all about evolution. From apes to modern man to a god in embryo. At the end of the book Kubrik talks about the thoughts of the embryo you see on the screen. He is looking over earth with all of it's weapons in space (according to the story). The statement is something along this line, the embryo knew something had to be done to help but he wasn't sure what to do at that time but he would decide.

All of the different scenarios you see on the screen have to do with the evolving man. The monolith was the catalyst or stimulus for the changes. In the ape scenes you noticed that the weapon was not thought of before the monolith appeared and that only one ape tribe had this knowledge.

The monolith was buried on the moon waiting for mankind to reach that level of evolution and became the reason that the mission was sent to Jupiter because that was the direction the signal was sent when it was exposed to sunlight for the first time in many millenia.

The following books also deal with the evolution theme, 2010 and 2061.
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Read the books, it really helped me to understand what Kubrik was thinking.

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