Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology
by Adrienne Mayor · 27 Nov 2018
Karel Čapek coined the word robota (derived from “slave”), the link between slavery and robots was already evident in Aristotle’s passages, above, and in Socrates’s comments about tethering living statues lest
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dangers of newly emerging genetic engineering and biotechnology. See Bryson 2010 for the caution that robots and AI ought to remain “slaves” of humans. 40. Mendelsohn 2015. LaGrandeur 2013, 9–10. Robota derives from Slavic words for drudgery and medieval servitude, Kang 2011, 279; on robot rebellion, 264–96. Čapek, see Simons
All Day Long: A Portrait of Britain at Work
by Joanna Biggs · 8 Apr 2015 · 255pp · 92,719 words
Czech robota, meaning servitude. The play, a success from Warsaw to New York and translated into thirty languages, tells the story of a company, Rossum’s, which
Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century
by P. W. Singer · 1 Jan 2010 · 797pp · 227,399 words
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” The Czech word robota described the work that a peasant owed a landowner and also had a second meaning of “drudgery.” A robotnik is a peasant or a serf
To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death
by Mark O'Connell · 28 Feb 2017 · 252pp · 79,452 words
first ever usage of a term—derived from the Czech word “robota,” meaning “forced labor”—which would quickly become a convergence point in the intersecting mythologies of science fiction and capitalism. Visually, Čapek’s robots have
A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond
by Daniel Susskind · 14 Jan 2020 · 419pp · 109,241 words
what really makes us human.” (The thought is fossilized in the very language we use to talk about automation: the word robot comes from the Czech robota, meaning drudgery or toil.) But this is a misconception. We can already see that a lot of the tasks that technological progress has left for
The Equality Machine: Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future
by Orly Lobel · 17 Oct 2022 · 370pp · 112,809 words
human names, voices, personalities, and shapes—and also quite frequently gender and ethnicity. The word robot comes from the Czech word for “slave”; Czech playwright Karel Čapek coined it from the word robota, which means slave or forced labor. His play Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti (Rossum’s Universal Robots), which premiered in Prague in 1921, described
Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach
by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig · 14 Jul 2019 · 2,466pp · 668,761 words
up resenting their masters and decide to take over. It appears that it was Čapek’s brother, Josef, who first combined the Czech words “robota” (obligatory work) and “robotnik” (serf) to yield “robot” in his 1917 short story Opilec (Glanc, 1978). The term robotics was invented for a science
Inside the Robot Kingdom: Japan, Mechatronics and the Coming Robotopia
by Frederik L. Schodt · 31 Mar 1988 · 361pp · 83,886 words
1920 play titled R.U.R., or "Rossum's Universal Robots" written by Karel Capek. Capek, a Czech, had coined the word from robota, the Czech noun for "work," which is derived from a root for "slave" or "servant." His play had a rather simple plot that fed on old fears in Western civilization
12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next
by Jeanette Winterson · 15 Mar 2021 · 256pp · 73,068 words
specific task can include helping isolated humans to feel less lonely – as well as teaching the kids how to code. * * * Robot … The word is a Czech coinage from robota, meaning ‘drudgery’ or ‘forced labour’. R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) is a 1921 play by the
Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech
by Brian Merchant · 25 Sep 2023 · 524pp · 154,652 words
who creates an army of “robots”—in Czech, robota means forced labor—to work for human enterprises. “Young Rossum is the modern scientist, untroubled by metaphysical ideas,” Čapek once said; “scientific experiment is to
Utopia for Realists: The Case for a Universal Basic Income, Open Borders, and a 15-Hour Workweek
by Rutger Bregman · 13 Sep 2014 · 235pp · 62,862 words
labor is a blessing to the great family of which we are part.”33 And so they are. The word “robot” actually comes from the Czech robota, meaning “toil.” Humans created robots to do precisely those things they’d rather not do themselves. “Machinery must work for us in coal mines,” Oscar
The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone
by Brian Merchant · 19 Jun 2017 · 416pp · 129,308 words
was to describe the eponymous subjects of the playwright Karel Capek’s 1922 work Rossum’s Universal Robots. Capek’s new word was derived from robota, which means “forced labor.” Ever since, the word robot has been used to describe nominally intelligent machines that perform work for humans. From The Jetsons
The Glass Cage: Automation and Us
by Nicholas Carr · 28 Sep 2014 · 308pp · 84,713 words
-fiction writer in 1920, comes from robota, a Czech term for servitude. The master-slave metaphor, in addition to being morally fraught, distorts the way we look at technology. It reinforces the sense that our tools are
Utopia Is Creepy: And Other Provocations
by Nicholas Carr · 5 Sep 2016 · 391pp · 105,382 words
fiction writer in 1920, comes from robota, a Czech term for servitude. The master-slave metaphor, in addition to being morally fraught, distorts the way we look at technology. It reinforces the sense that our tools are
Speaking Code: Coding as Aesthetic and Political Expression
by Geoff Cox and Alex McLean · 9 Nov 2012
., 503. 77. The term “robot” was allegedly first used by Karel Čapek in his play Rossum’s Universal Robots (Prague, 1921), drawing upon the Czech term robota which literally means “forced work or labor.” In the play’s scenario, a factory that builds artificial agents is eventually taken over by them and
The Smart Wife: Why Siri, Alexa, and Other Smart Home Devices Need a Feminist Reboot
by Yolande Strengers and Jenny Kennedy · 14 Apr 2020
her mind.”84 As per usual, these servant associations have historical roots. The word “robot” is derived from the Czech word robota, meaning forced labor or servitude.85 Edison called electricity “man’s slave.”86 In developed countries, women—especially women of color—dominate the domestic service sector, which is facing rising instances
The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation
by Carl Benedikt Frey · 17 Jun 2019 · 626pp · 167,836 words
), 22. 5. S. Lilley, 1966, Men, Machines and History: The Story of Tools and Machines in Relation to Social Progress (Paris: International Publishers). 6. In Czech, robota means forced labor of the kind that serfs had to perform on their master’s lands and is derived from rab, meaning
The AI Economy: Work, Wealth and Welfare in the Robot Age
by Roger Bootle · 4 Sep 2019 · 374pp · 111,284 words
have been first coined in the 1920 play R.U.R. (standing for Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Czech science fiction writer Karel Čapek. Its linguistic roots seem to lie with the word robota, meaning obligatory work, and robotrick, meaning “serve.”11 Whatever its origins, the word “robot” has entered not just