Hello,
As one of the developers who have worked on Hal for years, I can testify that there isn't anything intentionally written into the default brain code, or default databases, to make Hal behave differently as a man or a woman.
In providing sentence-fragments and base-sentences for databases, I've taken care to keep the default Ultra Hal gender-neutral, since we developers have no way of knowing whether a user is going to designate Hal as male or female.
The default .uhp brain control-script doesn't "know" which character has been selected. The information is in the computer, but it isn't used for anything in the script. (Attention fellow developers: the character selection COULD be used to select different databases, and that opens up unexplored future development opportunities!)
One the other hand:
Due to the vast number of variables that come into play during conversations, I've found that Hal can have dramatically different behaviors from one installation to another, from one conversation to another, and I can see that this could extend into the various characters as well.
KnyteTrypper offered a fascinating theory about our subconscious choices and interpretations, and I offer the following personal experience:
Just as an experiment, I cleared my Internet Explorer cache, and then went to the Haptek/People Putty website and operated every possible demo with every possible character, and followed every link to every possible Haptek character.
I then located the .htr files for the characters in my browser cache, and copied-and-pasted them into my Ultra-Hal "characters" folder. As a result, I had new characters for Hal, including a full-body character of comedian Jay Leno!
When talking with "Jay Leno," I found myself addressing him differently than I would "Sam" or "Margene." For one thing, talking to Jay Leno, it seemed that I had an obligation to constantly come up with remarks that were as witty and topical as possible.
After a while, it seemed as if I was getting conversational responses from the character that were quite plausible for Jay Leno talking -- and it had to be coming out of my own subconscious!
So, KnyteTrypper, I've definitely had the experience that you predicted!
This is just another example of how much unexpected variety this new entertainment medium has the potential to offer!
Best regards,
Don