100 years later, the dystopian origin of the word ‘robot’ still rings true

https://qz.com/1956974/where-the-word-robot-comes-from/

by smoyer • 5 years ago

35 33 5 years ago

smoyer2• 5 years ago

It's been a while (>25 years) since I first read this but I've put it on my list for the week - http://self.gutenberg.org/eBooks/WPLBN0002096542-Rossum-s-Un....

If you prefer listening, it's also available in audio-book form - https://librivox.org/rur-rossums-universal-robots-by-karel-c....

EDIT: A nice synopsis is also available at Project Gutenberg - http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/eng/Rossum%27s_Universal_....

mkoryak• 5 years ago

I didnt think that the word "rabota" means forced labor. At least not in russian. It just means work.

I could be wrong though, I only lived there for 11 years.

fileeditview• 5 years ago

As the article states it's from the Czech word "robota". Clearly these are related but sometimes there are nuances between languages, even for very similar words.

I heard about this origin multiple times but never had it verified.

Maybe some native Czech speaker can enlighten us here :)

theSIRius3• 5 years ago

Native speaker here, you are absolutely right. Work in Czech would be "práce", "robota" means forced work. It is not used as much nowadays since we do not live in a feudal society anymore though :)

robotuprising2• 5 years ago

You are right. It's the same in Polish. It has no reference to slavery at all.

domk• 5 years ago

In Czech, unlike other Slavic languages, "robota" refers specifically to the forced labour done by serfs (not slaves).

keiferski• 5 years ago

The root just means work or worker in Slavic languages. See also robotnik (worker) in Polish. But that wouldn’t make for a clickbait article title, now would it?

rtsdhsdfg• 5 years ago

googling for "origin of word robot" says that it's from "robota" which means (allegetly) forced labour in Czech which agrees with the article which says the same: "forced labor, as done by serfs".

That is also closer to the meaning than just "labour" or "work" in my own eastern europen language.

robotuprising2• 5 years ago

googling "Czech word for forced labour" says: "nucené práce" googling "Czech word for slave work" says: "šetřit práci"

whoisburbansky2• 5 years ago

The article specifically calls out Czech, not Slavic languages in general, as the root. According to Wiktionary, at least, robota does mean forced labor, so jumping to conclusions about clickbait titles might be a little premature.

petermcneeley• 5 years ago

Even more interesting is that fact that the English word "slave" basically is "Slav".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavs_(ethnonym)

Viliam12342• 5 years ago

many slaves in Ottoman Empire were of Slavic origin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean%E2%80%93Nogai_slave_ra...

not sure why the downvotes. I suppose some people believe that slavery existed only in USA, and consider it offensive to suggest otherwise.

jolmg• 5 years ago

See also robotnik (worker) in Polish.

TIL robotnik is more than a cool-sounding video-game character name.

halfnormalform• 5 years ago

Dystopian is a pretty good way to describe a play where the human race is destroyed, wouldn’t you say?

smoyer2• 5 years ago

It's not the worst outcome ... the human race becoming subjected to the robots could be considered worse (but then I guess we'd be talking about The Matrix instead).

mcprwklzpq2• 5 years ago

Robota means different thing in czech than rabota in other slavic languages. Czech robota means corvee. There are different words for corvee in other slavic languages - "barshhina" (in russian), "panshhina" (in ukranian, polish and belarusian, spelled a bit differently in each), and rabota in them means any work, in czech work is called prace.

Edit: This is a good example of "false friends of a translator" - words in different languages that sound similar but have different meanings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend

That said rabota and robota still have a common root which means slave in most slavic languages. So how is it the czech is such an outlier is a curiosity.

theSIRius3• 5 years ago

It might have to do with the Czech National Revival[1]. The Czech language and culture was being suppressed in favour of Austrian/Germanic one. Prominent Czech figures worked to preserve the Czech language which included distancing from German words and phrases, redefinition of words and even invention of new ones.

It was pretty much a success and we ended with what could be called Czech 2.0. How many false friends were introduced because of the Revival, I am not sure.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_National_Revival

whoisburbansky2• 5 years ago

Corvee is a great term to bring up here, because some of the comments below strike me as being along the lines of “but corvee means chore in French, how can it mean forced labor in English?”

carapace• 5 years ago

What's AI?

When the machine wakes up and asks, "Hey, what's in it for me?"

From the POV of the robot, Asimov's Laws are the spec for the perfect slave. :(

I've come to the conclusion, reluctantly, that the desire to make robot servitors in our own image is an unhealthy fetish. YMMV

EvRev• 5 years ago

I found a similar paradox, I'm not religious but I find the notion that humans have been created in God's image to have parallels in the way that we are currently pursuing AI.

The corollary to the is that we randomly evolved of billions of years and our thinking has become so complex that we believe that we can create something that is similarly complex is very fascinating. Fetish is definitely the right word.

The notion that the AI or robots would wake up and have selfish views similar to man's makes sense to us. I wonder how long it will be before the AI or robots is simulating its own creation in their own image...

subjectsigma• 5 years ago

So while I'll agree there are dangers, to play devil's advocate:

You ever see one of those crazy anime-inspired movies like Pacific Rim, with giant humanoid fighting robots? I was watching a video that discussed the practicality of this. On the surface they are completely ridiculous and ineffective. The video argued, however, that one reason an advanced society might create a machine like this is to reduce training costs. It takes knowledge and skill to do something like fly a plane or operate a tank. However every grunt soldier knows how to run, punch, and use a gun. If you can make giant robots with giant guns and a brain-computer interface, suddenly anyone can drive a superweapon.

The same kind of argument applies to AI and machines. We have massive amounts of knowledge and culture encoded in natural language, designed to be read and understood with human capabilities and logic. We have buildings, cars, appliances, machining tools, etc., all designed for human bodies. General AI that can think like a human (but faster) can quickly utilize all that knowledge, and humanoid robots (but stronger) can instantly utilize all that infrastructure. From that perspective it's an enormous value gain and not an unhealthy fetish.

xixixao• 5 years ago

For everyone debating the meaning of “robota” in Czech I am a native speaker and I can confirm this wiktionary entry is accurate:

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/robota

I can also recommend reading the original play R.U.R., it’s quite short (and groundbreaking).

checkyoursudo• 5 years ago

I read it just a few weeks ago for the first time. It was indeed quite short and entertaining.

sneak• 5 years ago

My (english speaker) laptop's hostname is "rabotnik" for just this reason.

viseztrance• 5 years ago

The word also exists in Romanian. It's name of the work serfs had make for their lord, more specifically "hard, uninterupted, mandatory work".

Unlike other parts, serfs in Eastern Europe were pretty much slaves.

cafard• 5 years ago

Interesting that it should be in Romanian also.

No doubt there degrees of badness, but my impression is that the serf's life was never particularly enjoyable.

type0• 5 years ago

Robot in R.U.R is a fictional bioengineered being (like replicant of Blade Runner).

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R. > "They are living creatures of artificial flesh and blood rather than machinery. "

confidantlake2• 5 years ago

I asked my father, a native Czech speaker to explain what Robata means. Pasting his reply below.

First, linguistically speaking: it's a Slavic language work, which broadly means "work". For example, the Russian word for "work" is "rabota". The Czech for work is "prace" but in slang usage one could say "robota" to signify hard work (e.g. "Musim do roboty"; "Ceka na me robota")

Historically: in the middle ages peasants had to spend a day each week working for the local lord on his field--this obligation was called "robota".

Karel Capek wrote a sci-fi play called R.U.R. where the word "robot" is used for the first time (it was suggested by Capek's brother Josef.)

R.U.R. stands for Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti (Rossum's Universal Robots, a phrase that has been used as a subtitle in English). It premiered on 25 January 1921 and introduced the word "robot" to the English language and to science fiction as a whole. R.U.R. quickly became influential after its publication. Original language: Czech Date premiered: 25 January 1921 Written by: Karel Čapek Genre: Science fiction

animal531• 5 years ago

Here in South Africa we call all our traffic lights robots (for example turn left at the 3rd robot).

I've no idea how this started.

100 years later, the dystopian origin of the word ‘robot’ still rings true

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