From: potter@csusac.ecs.csus.edu (Carl Kolchak)
Subject:  Re: "Robots" (was: Re: 'Science Fiction' Stage Plays )
Followup-To: alt.dev.null
Summary:  harrumph
Keywords: robots, androids, zoromes, humanoids, grodnirbs
Organization: INS, Inc.
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 06:44:58 GMT

Chad Lundgren said:

> From: lundgren@vesta.unm.edu (Chad Lundgren)
> Subject: Re: 'Science Fiction' Stage Plays
> Date: 19 Aug 92 04:23:22 GMT
> Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

<<<< stuff deleted >>>>

> I've never heard of it.  At the very least, Mr. Capek is credited
> in many circles as being the first to use the word robot, although
> Asimov probably did more to popularize it.

<<<< stuff deleted >>>>

    "Credited in many circles?"   Since Capek *coined* the bluidie
  word, from the Czech word for "worker"  (same slav root as the
  modern Russian "rahbotatch," -to work- ) and you won't find the
  word "robot" in print anydangwhere prior to the English publication
  of "R.U.R.",  I suspect you should probably re-evaluate your choice
  of terminology.  You're the first person I ever heard question
  Capek's responsibility for the word!  (At least you used the 
  minimal-threshold phrase "at least.")
 
     Earl and Otto Binder's "Adam Link" stories antedated Asimov's
  by quite a number of years, and were MUCH better known to readers
  of SF and Fantasy.
     Note that the very first Adam Link, titled "I, ROBOT," saw 
  light in "AMAZING STORIES"' *JANUARY, 1939* issue.
  A limited-publication collection, "I, ROBOT" appeared in the
  early forties, and an expanded version, "ADAM LINK: ROBOT,"
  in the mid-forties.
     Asimov used to tell variant stories concerning the choice of
  the title for *his* first robot collection; sometimes he'd 
  gotten permission from the Binder brothers up front, and sometimes
  he'd never heard of their book (hah!)...... I personally heard 
  him tell three different versions of the "title" story at 
  various conventions in the early sixties, which is kind of funny
  when you consider his much-vaunted memory.  (Bear in mind there
  is no legal stricture against this; you can't copyright a title.)

     Another interesting point is that Capek's "robots" were
  biological in nature; what we now refer to as "androids."   
     I'm still trying to trace etymological history (especially first
  appearance) of the word "android" in SF/Fantasy, and trying to 
  establish how it came to be applicable to both mechanical and 
  "meat" robots, with "robot" shifting its meaning to refer only to 
  mechanical creatures.
 
  Of course, we shouldn't forget "Captain Future"'s two sidekicks,
  Grag and Otho, the kiddie-SF genre's synthetic Marx Brothers,
     (late forties to early fifties)
  nor Tobor and his evil twin, recurring chracters in "Captain Video;"
     (early- to mid-fifties)

  but my favorite robot-like character in all of SF is Eric
  Frank Russell's "Jay Score," who was obviously a primary model
  for the Great Bird's "Spock."

-- 
=======================================================================
||  "C" gains much of its vaunted efficiency by employing a very     ||
||  powerful pre-processor, normally referred to as a "programmer."  ||
||  rem: "Ph-nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."       ||