I recently read R.U.R. Rossum’s Universal Robots, and I was surprised by the depth of themes found in the play. I should inform you that this post contains spoilers, but since it premiered in 1921 a spoiler warning seems a little odd nearly a hundred years later.

For those reading who are unfamiliar with the play, R.U.R. is one of the first stories that raised the specter of a robot revolution, and it is actually the source of the word robot in the English language. The word itself comes from a Czech word meaning forced labor.



The play is set on an island which is home to a factory for building robots, and the factory is in turn operated by robots.



The robots themselves are different than what you might be used to. Rather than being made of metal and gears they are constructed from synthetic organs and artificial flesh, but are denied emotions both to keep them subservient and as a justification for their servitude.



This plot gives us the framework for three main themes, the first of which is humanity’s ability to engineer their own destruction; in this case it comes in the form of a robot revolution, and while this story was written well before people had begun to worry about nuclear war and climate change, it isn’t hard to anticipate the man-made existential threats we live with today.



The existential threat I think the author had in mind though was that of war in general. Written shortly after the First World War, the efficiency of death introduced by modern machinery is focused on as the robots are eventually employed by nation states as soldiers because of their ability to kill without feeling. Humans first order robots to kill other humans, but this is what teaches war and dominance to the robots, and it isn’t long before they turn on their own generals.



That brings us almost directly into our next theme, and that is class struggle. This is highlighted more than one way. Of course the robots stand in as the story’s proletariat, and the humans as the bourgeoisie, but the play also takes time to lay out the effect that robot labor has on a capitalist mode of production.



In the first act, the owner of the robot factory poses the question, “What kind of worker do you think is the best worker?” The answer was the “cheapest worker,” and it was explained that the robots have fewer needs than human workers, and therefore they cost less to maintain. This made it cheaper to produce commodities, and in order to compete, all businesses everywhere were forced to replace human workers in favor of robots. This was noted to cause a great deal of unemployment, but the suffering this caused was justified by the hope of achieving a post scarcity society.



Now of course the robots eventually realize that while the humans need them to perform labor, the robots don’t need humans to direct them, and this thought begins the revolution.



In the end the robots kill all but one human, a worker who didn’t fight against the revolution. Recognized by the robots as one who works with his hands the same way they do, he is left alive.



The last theme is curiously religious, and on its surface seems like a means to moralize the story. After reflecting on it for some time I see it as an interesting extension of the Greek creation myths. During the course of the play it is highlighted that humans have attempted to take the place of God in the role of creator by creating the robots.

At one point a human even prays to God to save them from the revolution, but there is no divine intervention, and the robots take over the world.



In Greek mythology, the gods are the descendants of other divine beings. But the gods didn’t rise to power peacefully. In effect, they had their own revolution against their parents, killing the previous generation which had oppressed them.



The gods then create humans, and command us to serve them. Almost as an example of continuing class consciousness, humans discover their own creative power, and seek to overthrow the gods in building the robots.



Then continuing the theme of the created destroying their creator, manufacturing robots laid the grounds for humans to be replaced by their own creation. The play highlights this when two of the robots gain emotions and fall in love, giving them the ability to procreate, a power the other robots don’t have, and in the end the last human renames them Adam and Eve.

