Karel Čapek Essays

  • The New Age of I Robot

    968 Words  | 2 Pages

    Robots of the world! The power of man has fallen! A new world has arisen: the Rule of the Robots! March! (Capek, 1921). This was a grim scene from the first play to coin the term robot. From the very first literature to use the term robot, these creatures of man were made out to be feared. Now we enter the age where early science fiction authors predicted we would all have our own personal robots. The actual science behind intelligent robotic-thought has been harder than imagined but not impossible

  • The Golem: Playing God

    2093 Words  | 5 Pages

    “Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.” These famous words by the painter Pablo Picasso prove true in the infamous Jewish myth, The Golem: How He Came into the World (The Golem), and Karl Capek’s play, Rossum’s Universal Robots (R.U.R.). Throughout history, many persons have tried to play God, through acts like cloning in the 1990’s or simply calling themselves God, as was practice in ancient Egyptian societies. Rarely in time though has man actually succeeded at his game,

  • Dignity In The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

    1176 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the books Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass and RUR by Karel Capek, there is the topic of dignity and should people have to work to have human dignity. What makes them have dignity is very touchy and controversial topic. In the dictionary, dignities definition is the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect. Therefore, the definition along proves that people don’t have to work to have dignity but it helps. The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass

  • British Social Realism

    1926 Words  | 4 Pages

    The term has got accustomed, and not only in paintings - the British art of 50s just as the Italian neo-realism, experienced explosion of interest to a life of simple people, people of working class. The cinema did not lag behind as well: in 1960s Karel Reisz has shot a film “Saturday night, Sunday morning", one more novel of A. Sillitoe " Loneliness of the long-distance runner " has been transformed into a film in 1962 by Toni Richardson. In 1963 young Lindsay Anderson has made sensational film “This

  • Karel Capěk's Why I Am Not A Communist

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    The play R.U.R. was written, by Karel Capěk, as a cynical and critical view of the Communist Manifesto drafted by Freidrich Engels and Karl Marx. Capěk is known for his strong disdain for communism and Marxism, specifically detailing this in his essay “Why I Am Not A Communist”. In his play, Capěk depicts a proletariat class of robots fabricated for the sole purpose of being workers. These workers would later gain intelligent thought and emotional capacities that made them essentially human. With

  • The Injustices Of Captain Van Toch

    1364 Words  | 3 Pages

    Upon finding the newts, Captain Van Toch immediately took on a fatherly role, equating the newts to his “children” (Čapek 36). Despite this apparent sense of responsibility, he begun only rewarding them when they brought him oysters with a pearl inside – already beginning to seek out a profit. Similar to how many developing countries faced a host of actual problems like

  • Rossum's Universal Robots

    1215 Words  | 3 Pages

    stopped, or at least this is how it is framed in Karel Capek’s, Rossum’s Universal Robots. Desire is one of the dominating themes in RUR. Capek believed there were no ideal truths. There are simply desires, each with their own truths, but each with their own dangers as well. It is a combination of many desires that destroys all of humanity in this story, but the most dangerous desires come from Domin, the Central Director of Rossum’s Universal Robots. Capek displays how Domin’s desires for world mastery

  • Ex-Machina And I, Robot

    792 Words  | 2 Pages

    From the works of Karel Čapek and Isaac Asimov to the modern day films ‘Ex- Machina’ and ‘I, Robot,’ the trustworthiness of artificial intelligence (AI) has always been a wavering question. Some could say that the fears are nonsense, but they are mostly based on the philosophy that the more knowledgeable a species, the more controlling and violent the species becomes. The philosophy itself is somewhat true - look at the human race; we destroy the habitats of other creatures for our own personal or

  • Robots

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    What is a robot? Wikipedia defines it as “an automatically guided machine which is able to do tasks on its own.” That is a good definition of a robot, but there are few exceptions too. The term “robot” was first created by Josef Capek. It was used by his brother Karel Capek in his play Rossum’s Universal Robots. The word literally means “work” in Czech. The science fiction author Isaac Asimov was the first person to use the word “robotics” in his short story "Liar!" One of the first robots was thought

  • Advantages Of Robotic Assisted Surgery

    1900 Words  | 4 Pages

    Are robots better than educated surgeons? Hypothesis: Robots are better than Educated Surgeons because Robots perform calculated tasks whereas humans don’t. Humans are prone to making errors and not being precise in their actions. Table 1: The Strengths and Limitations of Surgeries Performed By Humans Strengths Limitations Strong hand-eye coordination Limited dexterity outside natural scale Dextrous (at human scale) Prone to tremor and fatigue Flexible

  • A Brief History Of Robots

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    have super strength. In 1921, Karel Capek, a czech playwright came up with an intelligent, artificially created person, which he called "robot." The word "robot" is czech for worker, slave, servant or forced labor and was gradually incorporated into the English language without being translated. Karel's play was entitled "Rossum's Universal Robots." The theme of the play was robots controlling humans in society. Although he introduced the idea of robots, Karl Capek was skeptical about how much

  • Universal Robotics

    1001 Words  | 3 Pages

    1 Introduction 1.1. History of Robotics In 1920 Karel Capek published his play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) which introduced the word “robot.” this word is derived from an old Slavic word that meant something like to “monotonous or forced labor.” However it took thirty years before the first industrial robot to make and implement to do work. In the 1950s George Devol designed the a robotic arm device that transported die castings in a General Motors plant in New Jersey which started its work

  • Robotics

    1182 Words  | 3 Pages

    given only the dreariest, dirtiest, most soul-destroying work. The word robot is Slav in origin and is related to the words for work and worker. Robots first appeared in a play, Rossum's Universal Robots, written in 1920 by the Czech playwright, Karel Capek. The play tells of an engineer who designs man-like machines that have no human weakness and become immensely popular. However, when the robots are used for war they rebel against their human masters. Though industrial robots do dull, dehumanizing

  • The Role Of Robots In Science Fiction Before Isaac Asimov

    1195 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Role of Robots in Science Fiction Before Isaac Asimov In literature the most convincing subject is that of the artificial servant. In 1921 Karel Capek play’s "RUR," named his artificial servants "robots," from the Czech word robota, which roughly means as "unwilling worker or someone who does boring work." We continue to use the name robot even though there are other words lıke cyborg , android. Isaac Asimov started to write his robot stories in the 1940s, and published the first volume, I

  • Artificial Intelligence Summary

    1164 Words  | 3 Pages

    Source 1 – Artificial Intelligence by Stuart J. Russell and Peter Norvig Summary- This book expert describes the fundamentals, history, and changes associated with Artificial Intelligence from 1950’s onward. The book provides a basic explanation that Artificial Intelligence involves simulating human behavior or performance using encoded thought processes and reasoning with electronic free standing components that do mechanical work. 1. Philosophers in 400 B.C saw the human mind as a sort of machine

  • Evolution Of Robotics

    1269 Words  | 3 Pages

    Robotics is one of the oldest sciences in history, although it is overlooked by many people. Robotics dates back as far as 200 B.C. with the invention of the first clocks by the Greeks. Robots can help us because they can perform actions and go into places where the human cannot go. In the past hundred years we have made many advances in the field and it is predicted that by 2020 every household will have a robot to help them. One of the earliest known researchers of robotics was Greek inventor

  • History Of Robotics

    1240 Words  | 3 Pages

    something physical–such as move or manipulate objects. The word robot comes from the Czech word robota, which means drudgery or slave-like labor. the word was first used to describe fabricated workers in a fictional 1920s play by Czech author Karel Capek called Rossum’s Universal Robots. During the play, a scientist invents robots to help people by performing simple, repetitive tasks. However, once the robots are used to fight wars, they turn on their human owners and take over the world. If

  • The Technical Cognition in a Robotic System

    1440 Words  | 3 Pages

    Robotics research has been conducted for the last few decades. The word ‘robot’ originally coined by Karel Čapek, a Czech writer in 1920 which means ‘forced labor’ (O2, 2013). The purpose of developing robots was for fulfilling the increasing demands of industrial revolution, but now are more focus on showing various level of cognition abilities and intelligence. And thus the research and development of cognitive architecture has been conducted over past few years. Generally, it comprises basic components

  • Robots Essay

    1741 Words  | 4 Pages

    they never saw and knew before. In this modern life, technology has affected a lot of people’s lives in many levels. Robots are considered as important products of technology. Robots were introduced by a writer, Karel Čapek, from the Czech word, robota, meaning “forced labor” or “serf”. Čapek used this word in his play, R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) which opened in Prague in January, 1921, a play in which an Englishman named Rossum mass-produced automata. The automata, robots, are meant to do the

  • G. R. Rossum's Universal Robots

    1767 Words  | 4 Pages

    they never saw and knew before. In this modern life, technology has affected a lot in people’s lives in many levels. Robot is considered as an important product of technology. Robot was introduced by a writer, Karel Čapek, from the Czech word, robota, meaning “forced labor” or “serf”. Čapek used the word Robot in his play, R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) which opened in Prague in January, 1921, a play in which automata are mass-produced by an Englishman named Rossum. The automata, robots, are