Rossum's universal robots: not the machines

Abstract

Purpose: One assumes in the era of rapidly expanding technology that robot implies mechanical beings. This is not how the word was used initially and represents one of those metamorphoses to another conceptualization. This is an investigation into Capek's original play, Rossum's Universal Robots, for an understanding of his intended meaning.

Methods: Karel Capek was Czechoslovakian. His play was written in 1920, first performed in 1921, and presented in New York in 1922. It has come to symbolize Western society's feelings about robots. Capek's writing and the original play might clarify the definition of robot for the record, in light of some controversy as to whether the da Vinci Surgical System is a robot or not. THE PLAY: Rossum was a great physiologist who chemically synthesized living protoplasm and was capable of constructing artificial life forms: first, a dog; then, a man. His son was an engineer who quickly was able to manufacture large numbers of humanoids at lower costs " ... producing a robot has been brought down within 15 years from $10,000 to $150." This is the first foreshadowing of Moore's Law. But critically, these are not machines, even though his robots outperform humans. The story turns sinister as the robots eventually revolt and kill their creators.

Conclusions: Like many things in our vocabulary, the term robot was initially used for a biologic organism that was created for servitude. Defined by the Robotic Institute of America (1979), a robot is ... "a reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move materials, parts, tools, or specialized devices through various programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks." This is far from the in tended use envisioned by Capek, but applies to the da Vinci Surgical System. As Alquist in R.U.R. concludes: "... if there are no more human beings left, at least let there be Robots!"