The truth you didn't know: The word "Robot" is 100 years old

Exactly on January 25, 1921, 100 years ago, in a Czech science fiction play called “Rossum’s Universal Robots (RUR)” , author Karel Čapek introduced the word to Not only introducing words, the author also built people’s conceptions of robots and potential dangers of robots to humans.

The truth you didn't know: The word "Robot" is 100 years old

The play RUR comes at the perfect time, because in the period from 1880 to 1930, the world witnessed the most rapid and dramatic changes in human history, with fundamental advances in half a century more than 2,000 years ago.

The period at that time was considered the era of machines, technological equipment, telephones, radios, etc., which completely changed the way of thinking and lifestyle of people. It was also the heyday of Henry Ford, with the emergence of an assembly line production system that greatly increased labor productivity.

The year 1921 was also the time when World War I had just ended, leaving many serious consequences for many countries. But in contrast to the warring countries, the United States was the beneficiary, it was the war that awakened the sleeping giant into a new superpower.

The truth you didn't know: The word "Robot" is 100 years old

RUR was written by Karel Čapek, a Czech author and critic, the owner of no less than 7 literary Nobel nominations during his lifetime. Although presented as a great romantic drama, the content of RUR satirizes many issues in society at that time from the factory system, the way of consumption, the trend of Americanization, capitalism, labor relations, militarism, both what it means to be human and how important it is to live with purpose… The play is about a robotics factory, eventually robots This revolted against humanity. Since then, the themes of robot uprisings have greatly impacted popular culture and become the inspiration for many later films such as Blade Runner, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, etc.

The truth you didn't know: The word "Robot" is 100 years old
Robots are human-shaped machines that have their own “brains” to store and process information…

The word “Robot” comes from “Robota” which means forced labor in Czech. The name was created specifically for the play. However, contrary to the imagination of the time, these robots were not chains of systems in factories controlled through monitoring computers. They are human-shaped machines, with their own “brains” to store and process information, used to replace human jobs. Robots will have no emotions, no awareness of their lives, etc. Karel also introduced the idea that robots don’t need to be shaped like humans, they can be in any shape, it doesn’t matter. .

The truth you didn't know: The word "Robot" is 100 years old
Today, humans have designed many types of robots with many different purposes.

Today, humans have designed many large and small robots that are programmed to perform different purposes, such as ocean exploration, navigation, restaurant service, companionship with the elderly, entertainment. for everyone…