There were IBM logos designed for the film and there were IBM design consultants working with Kubrick on the layout of the controls and computer screens.
Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design manufacturing... layout processes and procedures.
As far as loneliness I feel Los Angeles and its layout having to drive everywhere - it is a lonely place. It's an isolated city in that respect because you're driving to places alone listening to the radio.
Over the past 50 years we got versions of X-ray specs and space vacations and even death rays. But the X-ray specs don't fit on your face - they're big things that screen your luggage for guns. Space vacations are real but they cost $20 million. We have death rays but you have to be a triple Ph.D. to play with them.