The word “robot” has only a few years left to celebrate its 100th anniversary, so what better way to open your mouth about this event than to review the most famous fictional robots throughout history.
The word “robot” comes from the Czech word ‘robota’ , which means “servitude” or “slavery” and appeared for the first time in January 1920 in the work of the Czechoslovak playwright Karel Capek (1890-1938) called “ Rossums Universal Robots, RUR ” , in which the protagonist Harry Domin, creates a company in the middle of the ocean dedicated to the manufacture of creatures that look like human beings in order to use them as cheap labor. Everything is running smoothly until Dr. Gall, head of Rossum’s Department of Universal Robot Psychology, gives soul to these robotic creatures. The outcome is as expected: the androids rebel against being enslaved and declare war on the human race.
Despite the fact that tragedy and violence have used to be a recurring argument in topics related to robots, humans have always been fascinated by them. The first accounts of robots date back to ancient China in the third century BC, where a curious description in a text by Lie Zi (one of the three fundamental works of philosophical Taoism), describes an artificial humanoid that could mimic human actions.
As our society and technology advance, so does the creativity and scope of robotic lore that has presented robots as more than just mechanical servers, even superheroes.
We take a journey through robotics in the world of fiction.
