2001: A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey, #1)

by Arthur C. Clarke

He felt like adding, ‘And please forget the whole matter.’ But that, of course, was the one thing that Hal could never do.

It has often been argued that any advanced culture must be benevolent but we cannot take any chances. ‘Moreover, as the past history of our own world has shown so many times, primitive races have often failed to survive the encounter with higher civilisations.