
Karel Čapek's play "R.U.R." premiered in January 1921 - bookofjoe
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/origin-word-robot-rur/
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bitL
I've always thought that the word "Robot" comes from Slovak "robota" (regular
work, commonly used) instead of Czech word "robota" (forced labor, rarely
used). It was explained to me by people from former Czechoslovakia that Karel
had his brother Josef recovering from an illness in Tatra region of Slovakia
in 1919 where people used the word all the time; Josef then suggested Karel to
rename his originally intended "Laboři" (laborers) as "Roboti" (robots). BTW,
they both were devastated by Munich Agreement 1938 and Josef later died in a
concentration camp, so one could wonder what could have been...

Moreover, Rossum from R.U.R. is a word play on "rozum", which is a
Czech/Slovak word for mind/brain. Mind's Universal Robots ;-)

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yorwba
You can read a translation here:
[https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/capek/karel/rur/](https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/capek/karel/rur/)

There's also an audiobook available from LibriVox: [https://librivox.org/rur-
rossums-universal-robots-by-karel-c...](https://librivox.org/rur-rossums-
universal-robots-by-karel-capek/)

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pavel_lishin
R.U.R. is one of my favorite things to reference when people ask, "Why do they
call Robots <X> in <Franchise Y>?"

(For example: Omnics in Overwatch, Synths in Fallout.)

~~~
PhasmaFelis
Pointless nitpick: Synths in Fallout are specifically human-simulant androids.
Conventionally mechanical-looking robots are just called robots.

But yeah, there's a lot to say about sci-fi/fantasy settings that give special
names to well-worn setting concepts!

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zepn
Highly recommend Capek's other works, The Insect Play, and War with the Newts.

~~~
ableal
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Absolute_at_Large](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Absolute_at_Large)

(The pantheists were right, and the new matter to energy conversion plants
liberate "The Absolute". Hilarity ensues.)

~~~
inflatableDodo
This looks amazing. Started reading a translation -
[https://www.fadedpage.com/books/20180101/html.php](https://www.fadedpage.com/books/20180101/html.php)

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joemi
R.U.R. is a great quick read, and while some aspects are a bit dated, a lot of
it is quite ahead of its time. Or perhaps I just feel that way due to way in
which so many modern scifi stories (be it in books, tv, movies, games) were
clearly influenced by this.

Either way, if you're into scifi, I consider this play required reading.

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PhasmaFelis
The article hints at this, but I thought it was interesting that Capek's
robots, though mass-produced tools, were not mechanical: "There are
descriptions of kneading-troughs for robot skin, great vats for liver and
brains, and a factory for producing bones. Nerve fibers, arteries, and
intestines are spun on factory bobbins, while the Robots themselves are
assembled like automobiles." (Wikipedia.)

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Animats
_" The power of man has fallen. By gaining possession of the factory we have
become masters of everything. The period of mankind has passed away. A new
world has arisen. … Mankind is no more. Mankind gave us too little life. We
wanted more life."_

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lidHanteyk
I think that the best incarnation yet of RUR's ideas on the silver screen is
Blade Runner.

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aasasd
Karel Čapek's name is a perfect example of the ridiculous habit of English-
speakers to preserve foreign spelling. As you'll notice, ‘Čapek’ isn't written
in English, as ‘Č’ isn't a letter in English alphabet. Now, how many people in
English-speaking countries know how to pronounce Czech letters? I've heard the
name pronounced as ’Kahpek‘ or ‘Kaypek’ (e.g. right in the Librivox book
linked in the thread). But it's actually [tʃapɛk], which would be better
represented as ‘Chapek’.

Apparently, since English-speakers have no idea how to pronounce English words
that they didn't memorize beforehand, they also gave up on the idea of
representing foreign words phonemically. But they still keep trying to _read_
them that way if they see vaguely-Latin alphabet.

~~~
david927
I couldn't disagree more. Literally no one has a problem pronouncing yet
another great Czech: Dvořák. And I defy you to turn that into a phonetical
spelling that isn't a abomination upon church and Christ.

We shouldn't be afraid of asking too much of people in regards to other
cultures and languages. We humans are more intelligent than you're giving us
credit for.

~~~
aasasd
Dvořák's name is another good example for my point. What's the use of parading
around the ‘ř’ in English texts if the sound can be pronounced only by
speakers of Czech, a few nearby dialects and Kobon speakers in Papua New
Guinea? Well guess what, every language has a spelling in its own alphabet,
for the pronunciation that the speakers adopt for ‘Dvořák’—including English,
in this case.

At least even with ‘ř’ it's not as bad as ‘Čapek’, since ‘ř’ is likely just
replaced with more-or-less-hard ‘r’ when speaking, and not an unrelated sound.

~~~
david927
Before I learned Czech, I pronounced it like most English-speakers: da-vor
(rhymes with door) zhak (rhymes with shack). Now that I speak pretty decent
Czech and can throw down a respectable 'ř'(which is one my great life
accomplishments :), I feel that the English pronunciation is absolutely fine,
and it requires no change.

You write can write Čapek in any way you want. But, personally, I'm proud that
it's spelled that way. People know his great works, they (across all
languages) commonly use a word he coined, and they literally make people learn
a tiny bit more about the Czech language when they say, "Ah! So in Czech the Č
is a CH!"

