What was Stanley Kubrick trying to tell us in his movie 2001?

The movie 2001 was a remarkable technical achievement with cinematography that still stands out today as being quite amazing. It was a collaboration between Arthur Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, with Clarke writing the novel and Kubrick directing the movie. Both were in development simultaneously, with the release of the movie preceding the novel. 2001 is somewhat ambiguous and will lead you on a phantasmagorical trip around the universe and up the garden path until your mind is lost in complete confusion. While of all Kubrick’s movies are complex and multilayered, 2001 is perhaps the most multilayered and enigmatic of all, mainly because Kubrick consistently refused to provide anything close to an explanation.