{"id":57033,"date":"2025-09-15T15:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T20:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=57033"},"modified":"2025-09-15T15:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T20:04:08","slug":"r-u-r","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=57033","title":{"rendered":"R.U.R."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As part of our daily morning routine, we were reviewing the BBC pre-WW2 broadcast schedules. Today we made this fascinating discovery – the first ever televised Sci-Fi program:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The broadcast was based on a 1920 Czech play by Karel \u010capek, called R.U.R. The play introduced the word “robot” into the English language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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R.U.R. is a 1920 science fiction play by the Czech writer Karel \u010capek. “R.U.R.” stands for Rossumovi Univerz\u00e1ln\u00ed Roboti (Rossum’s Universal Robots, a phrase that has been used as a subtitle in English versions).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The play had its world premiere on 2 January 1921 in Hradec Kr\u00e1lov\u00e9; it introduced the word “robot” to the English language and to science fiction as a whole. R.U.R. became influential soon after its publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Synopsis
<\/strong>The play begins in a factory that makes artificial workers from synthetic organic matter. (As living creatures of artificial flesh and blood, that later terminology would call androids, the playwright’s ‘roboti’ differ from later fictional and scientific concepts of inorganic constructs.) Robots may be mistaken for humans but have no original thoughts. Though most are content to work for humans, eventually a rebellion causes the extinction of the human race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Origin of the word robot<\/strong>
The play introduced the word robot<\/em>, which displaced older words such as “automaton” or “android” in languages around the world. In an article in Lidov\u00e9 noviny, Karel \u010capek named his brother Josef as the true inventor of the word. In Czech, robota means forced labour of the kind that serfs had to perform on their masters’ lands and is derived from rab, meaning “slave”.<\/p>\nWikipedia<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Elder G Weighs In<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Elder G:<\/strong>
It\u2019s fascinating that the very first use of robot already carried this tension: efficiency and convenience on one side, danger and rebellion on the other. Almost every robot story since has been dancing with \u010capek\u2019s shadow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n