Photo by oskayOur twin boys left for science camp yesterday morning. Oh man, were they excited! They have been counting down the days since they first brought home the informational brochure last August. Since science has been the topic of conversation around our house lately, it was especially fitting that my good friend, Geoff, emailed me yesterday with some cool science-and-robot-related tidbits. First up, he linked me to this fantastic circuitry snack. (The resistor values are 100 k (x2), and a 1 uF Nilla wafer ceramic cap. The LED load resistor is 330 ohms. (orange-orange-black-gold) The wires that are used here are the berry Twizzler strips.) **not vegan, but hey, this one is not for eating, eh?

Our conversation then turned to robots (among many other interesting subjects), when he told me that the Capek brothers invented the word "robot" for their play, R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). I did not know about this play, nor the robot word origin, so I started researching and found all sorts of interesting goodies.

R.U.R. is a science fiction play in the Czech language that was written by Karel Capek. It premiered in 1921 in Prague; debuted in the US in NYC in 1922; and first ran in London in April of 1923. The play starts out in a factory that makes artificial people, who were called robots. Though happy to work for humans at first, they eventually begin a robot rebellion that leads to the end of the human race.

Before the play introduced the word robot, the machines had previously been called androids or automatons. Though Karel Capek was certainly responsible for introducing the term robot and making it popular, he credits his brother Josef, a cubist painter and writer, as the true inventor of the word. The word robot is derived from the czech noun "robota" meaning "labor."

This excerpt from Lidové noviny (Dec, 24, 1933), a daily newspaper published in the Czech Republic, as translated by Norma Comrada, discusses the robot origin.

About the Word Robot

translated by Norma Comrada

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.

Isaac Asimov wrote "I, Robot" in 1950; a collection of nine short stories, in which he set out the principles of robot behavior known as the Three Laws of Robotics.

1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2) A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

I especially love this line from Asimov's book: "How old are you?" she wanted to know. "Thirty-two," I said. "Then you don't remember a world without robots. To you, a robot is a robot. Gears and metal; electricity and positrons. Mind and iron! Human-made! If necessary, human-destroyed! But you haven't worked with them, so you don't know them. They're a cleaner better breed than we are." An interesting commentary, given that the book tells the stories of robots gone mad, robot-politicians, and robots who secretly run the world. Who would have known what a reality those ideas would later become.



Check out this cool robot. He is amazing!

And forward ahead to 44 sec on this one. Awesome!

