topics: |  philosophy | mind |

Excerpts: Birth of the term "robot": Jana Horakova / Jozef Kelemen

 	from
	ch. 12 The Robot Story: Why Robots Were Born and How They Grew Up
 	Jana Hora´kova´ and Jozef Kelemen

Karel Cˇapek's own version, in the Prague paper Lidove´ noviny (People’s
News), Dec 24, 1933: 

	A reference by Professor Chudoba to the Oxford Dictionary account of
	the word Robot’s origin and its entry into the English language
	reminds me of an old debt.  The author of the play R.U.R. did not, in
	fact, invent that word; he merely ushered it into existence. It was
	like this: The idea for the play came to said author in a single,
	unguarded moment. And while it was still warm he rushed immediately
	to his brother, Josef, the painter, who was standing before an easel
	and painting away at a canvas till it rustled.
	    "Listen, Josef," the author began, "I think I have an idea for a play."
	    "What kind," the painter mumbled (he really did mumble, because at the moment
	he was holding a brush in his mouth).
	    The author told him as briefly as he could.
	    "Then write it," the painter remarked, without taking the brush
	from his mouth or halting work on the canvas. The indifference was
	quite insulting.
	    "But," the author said, "I don’t know what to call these
	artificial workers. I could call them Labori, but that strikes me as
	a bit bookish."
	    "Then call them Robots," the painter muttered, brush in mouth,
	and went on painting. And that’s how it was. Thus was the word Robot
	born; let this acknowledge its true creator.  p.284-5

Later, a different version by Capek from The Evening Standard, July 2,
1924: 

	Robots were a result of my traveling by tram. One day I had to go to
	Prague by a suburban tram and it was uncomfortably full. I was
	astonished with how modern conditions made people unobservant of the
	common comforts of life. They were stuffed inside as well as on
	stairs, not as sheep but as machines. I started to think about humans
	not as individuals but as machines and on my way home I was thinking
	about an expression that would refer to humans capable of work but
	not of thinking.  This idea is expressed by a Czech word, robot.

"Reason" in the Czech language is rozum, pronounced "rossum." We
can see why the name of the first constructor of robots in Cˇapek’s play
R.U.R. is Rossum, and why Rossum’s Universal Robots is the title of the
play. 287

The Plot of R.U.R

In a distant island lies the factory of Rossum’s Universal Robots, which is
the only entity there.

In this utopian island factory, robots, a specific kind of artificial
worker — are mass produced and distributed all around the world. They are
physically stronger than humans, and do not become exhausted by mechanical
work.  Originally, they were developed by Rossum senior, a scientist of the
"age of knowledge," who wanted to make artificial people "in order to
depose God through science." The robots produced by the R.U.R. factory are
the "younger generation of the old robots"; they are not complete
replicas of humans but are very effective in use, being ergonomic devices
developed by Rossum junior, an engineer, as the "mind children" of the
"age of industry."

there are very few references to the [technology for building robots] - 
a mention of some chemical processes needed for the living jelly
from which parts of robots are made; a bit about the serial
production of different organs, which are then collected on the assembly
lines of the factory. 

Capek describes the robots’ incredible powers of memory and their ability
to communicate and count, along with their lack of creative thought and
initiative. This is very reminiscent of computers controlling their robotic
bodies: "If you were to read a twenty-volume encyclopedia to them, they’d
repeat it all to you with absolute accuracy," he mentions, and adds
ironically: "They could very well teach at universities" (Capek 1983,
p. 130; this last sentence was omitted in the first English translation] 

The plot of R.U.R.

The robots are being sold on the world market as a cheap labor force.
Helena, now the wife of Mr. Domin, makes the top production engineer,
Dr. Gall (who is in love with her, like all the other directors of the factory),
give the robots "an irritability" that causes outbursts of anger; later these
emotions allow the emergence of something like individuality — an ability
to make decisions and to behave humanly. 

Eventually, the robots realize their physical and mental superiority over
humankind, and declare war against all humans.  They kill all humans
everywhere, but Helena destroys the recipe for producing robots, who have
no reproductive system, can live for only twenty years.  For this reason
they keep the master builder, Alquist alive, and try to get the recipe from
him.

	When the robots tell Alquist that he is in fact the last living
	human, he orders them from his study in a fury and falls asleep. He
	is woken up by two robots, Helena and Primus, who behave like a young
	human couple falling in love. Unlike the other robots, they have
	feelings, they sense love, they are willing to protect each other’s
	"life." Alquist sends them excitedly into the world as a new Adam
	and Eve, as the new generation. This first couple of living robots is
	already indistinguishable from humans. So the end of the play is very
	typical for Capek: Nobody is completely guiltless and nobody is
	altogether innocent.

Capek's instructions on performing as robots in R.U.R: 
	In the prologue the robots are dressed like people. Their movements
	and speech are laconic, their faces are expressionless, and their
	gaze is fixed. In the play they wear linen fatigues tightened at the
	waist with a belt, and have brass numbers on their chests. In
	contrast to the robots in the prologue, in the last act of the play
	the robotess Helena and the robot Primus talk and act like humans,
	and behave even more humanly than humans in the play. The female
	robot Helena even uses Helena Glory’s typical articulation of the
	letter R, as if the first couple of robots really carry on a human
	heritage.

Through the "robotic" behaviours, Capek also argues that humans themselves have to
be aware of the possibility of falling into stereotyped behaviors... 
individuals who identify too strongly with a crowd can end up with
robot-like behaviour.  

About work, Capek feels that work is an integral part of human life. It is
not only one of our duties, but also one of our essential needs. Without
work humankind will degenerate because people will not have any need
to improve themselves.

[Has a photo of Honda’s humanoid robot ASIMO laying a bunch of flowers at the
statue of Karel Capek in the Prague Museum, in Aug 2003]