R.U.R.
Channel: 宇宙のすべての知識 プリンシピア
Date: 2019-03-01

R.U.R., by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=37386 / CC BY SA 3.0

#1921_plays
#Artificial_intelligence_in_fiction
#Plays_by_Karel_Čapek
#Works_about_robots
#Science_fiction_theatre
R.U.R.

R.U.R. is a 1920 science fiction play by the Czech writer Karel Čapek. "R.U.R." stands for "Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti" (Rossum's Universal Robots). However, the English phrase "Rossum's Universal Robots" had been used as the subtitle in the Czech original. 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 famous and was influential early in the history of its publication. By 1923, it had been translated into thirty languages.

The play begins in a factory that makes artificial people, called "roboti" (robots), from synthetic organic matter. They are not exactly robots by the current definition of the term: they are living flesh and blood creatures rather than machinery and are closer to the modern idea of androids or replicants. They may be mistaken for humans and can think for themselves. They seem happy to work for humans at first, but a robot rebellion leads to the extinction of the human race. Čapek later took a different approach to the same theme in "War with the Newts", in which non-humans become a servant class in human society.

"R.U.R." is dark but not without hope, and was successful in its day in both Europe and North America.

Parentheses indicate differences in translations.



Helena, the daughter of the president of a major industrial power, arrives at the island factory of Rossum's Universal Robots. She meets Domin, the General Manager of R.U.R., who tells her the history of the company:

In 1920, a man named Rossum came to the island to study marine biology, and in 1932 he accidentally discovered a chemical that behaved exactly like protoplasm, except that it did not mind being knocked around. Rossum attempted to make a dog and a man, but failed. His ...