His machines and automata were described in a First Century A.D. The Greek genius Ctesibius of Alexandria created clocks that activated simple automata at set times in the third century B.C. The golem is formed of earth or clay in a roughly human shape and then animated by religious or magical forces. The Greeks also tell of Hephaestus, the blacksmith of the gods, who created metal mechanical figures the mythical mechanical creation Talos defended Crete.Ĭapek himself recognized that his 'robota' were recreations of the golem, a creation of Jewish folklore. Another is the story of Pygmalion, an artist so great that one of his beautiful sculptures, Galatea, came to life. The ancient Greek legend of Cadmus, who sowed dragon teeth that turned into soldiers, is one example. The idea of an artificial person is quite old. It appears that Isaac Asimov, rightly famed for his collection of stories about robots, was the originator of associated terms like 'robotics' and 'roboticist'. The play was issued in an English translation in 1923, introducing the term to the English-speaking world. They remember everything, while at the same time thinking of nothing new one of the characters remarks that 'they'd make fine university professors.'Ĭapek himself credits his brother Josef Capek as the originator of the term 'robot'. The robots were fabricated in a biological manner. is closer to what we would call an android. chucked out everything not directly related to work, and doing that he virtually rejected the human being and created the Robot.'Īlthough today we usually think of the word 'robot' in association with some sort of electromechanical being made of metal and spare parts, the artifact in the play R.U.R. Helena: 'The best? Probably the one who- who- who is honest- and dedicated.'ĭomin: 'No, it's the one that's the cheapest. Domin: 'Practically speaking, what is the best kind of worker?' The word 'robot' comes from the Czech word robota, which means 'drudgery' or 'servitude' a robotnik is a serf who performs menial labor.

(Rossum's Universal Robots) premiered in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1921.

Rossum's universal robots karel capek