THE POPULARIZATION OF THE TERM "ROBOT"

Czech author Karel Čapek introduced the term “robot” with his 1921 science fiction play R.U.R.: Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti [Rossum's Universal Robots] in which he depicts the rise of robots that had been created to provide cheap labor and their overthrow of humans. Čapek’s “robots” are actually closer to androids than mechanical robots as they are created with organic matter. The play’s robots, in many ways, foreshadow the replicants of the 1982 film Blade Runner and Čapওek explores the idea of his robots developing human feelings. 

The present document is a licensing agreement for the publication ofꩵ Paul Selver’s English trans෴lation of Čapek’s play. The English translation would first appear in print shortly after this agreement, in 1923.