How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Quote #1
A hominid looks toward the monolith. He grabs a bone from the tapir's skeleton. He lightly taps it once, twice. Then an idea dawns on him, and he smashes it down on the skull, crushing it. Images of tapirs falling to the new bone club are interspersed between this moment of triumphant invention.
We tend to think of technology as something that connects us to the Internet, runs computations for us, and tells us where to find the closest Shake Shack. That's because we live in the computer age. But technology is really any object or knowledge that allows us to accomplish an objective or make something. Here, the film dramatizes the origin of technology as the hominid turns an ordinary bone into a tool that increases the momentum of his swing, allowing him to easily Hulk-smash the skull where his bare hands could not.
Quote #2
The hominids return to the watering hole and, using the new club, make quick work of the other tribe that took control of the place.
Pretty soon, we see the dark side of technology—its ability to kill people. It's like the Coke bottle in The Gods Must Be Crazy. In that movie, primitive bushmen of the Kalahari, finding an empty Coke bottle thrown out the window of a plane (they think it's a mysterious gift from the gods), first use it to pound roots to cook, then quickly discover it's useful for bonking someone on the head.
Quote #3
After defeating his enemy, the hominid throws his weapon in the air in triumphant victory. The bone spins and spins, and a match cut transforms the bone into a satellite orbiting Earth.
This famous match cut shows a direct link between the bone club and the orbiting satellite, the old and the new tech. The satellite is a more sophisticated device, but they share a common function. It's the bone club v.8700543.