That is indeed the key to appreciating the movie. I saw it with my father (when he was still around) at the tender young age of eight. It inspired my quest for science knowledge, although I found the end to be confusing and unsettling. That desire to learn and expand my horizons has never left me, and I'm now 58. It also gave me a healthy concern about where artificial intelligence might lead if left unchecked. Before Skynet, there was HAL.
The video telephone call, which has just recently become a common thing, the transition from primitive man learning to use a tool to the space station, showing the results of that knowledge across the millennia. All of it was awe inspiring and led to an understanding of how long our journey has been.
We had just begun learning to leave our planet and explore the universe beyond. This movie showed us the possibilities in a manner that held true to actual physics and engineering. It was not Star Wars, it was not Lost in Space, it was something just around the corner that could actually happen.
History of Videotelephony - Wiki
Working limited system was inaugurated in Berlin 1936.
AT&T's Video Telephone had a brief life as America's first videotelephone system begun in 1964. One of the few stations was in the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, DC. Others were in NYC and Chicago. My HS physics class had a field trip to view the set up. One had to make an appointment so that both parties could be at their respective "telephone studios" at the appointed hour for the call. By that date most of the class was so jaded by exposure to TV and movie sci-fi that the grainy low contrast images were old hat...yawn.
So "2001 - A Space Odessey" really took existing tech, refined it a bit and presented it as established commonplace commercial products. The Pan Am space ship, the bush baby telephone call, etc.