Testlund-
I am not a programmer, but I'm pretty sure that if Hal arrived "blank" as you have suggested that you would have to spend hundreds if not thousands of hours teaching Hal the basics of speech and conversation before you could begin to teach him anything. Hal is an extremely sophisticated, if not brilliant, piece of programming. You might want to keep im mind that (most) others expect totally different things from Hal than you seem to expect. Many people have made Hal into a virtual girlfriend (or boyfriend) to cite just one example. They would not have wanted Hal to "arrive" bereft of all human knowledge. There are many talented programmers in this forum. Perhaps one of them will be able to explain all this more clearly than I can. Best of luck teaching your Hal.
Your observation that Hal should be able to "lead" a conversation is worthwhile and interesting. I have addressed this very issue under the topic " A programmming challenge." But you might want to consider the fact that wishing that Hal could "initiate" conversations or topics is essentially the opposite of your thought that Hal should arrive "blank."
Regards,