the star child

The space fetus of Dave Bowman, seen at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In the official book adaptation by Arthur C. Clarke it is described as the next step in human evolution created by the Monolith using Dave Bowman's body. It is made of pure energy and is represented as a fetus (a form Dave Bowman himself decided to adopt) to symbolize a nascent new species. It has advanced almost godlike telekinetic and telepathic powers.