History

The History of Robots

A robot by definition is "an automatic device that performs functions normally ascribed to humans or a machine in the form of a human."

The acclaimed Czech playwright, Karel Capek, made famous the word robot, the Czech word for forced labor or serf. Capek introduced the word in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) first performed in Prague in January 1921. Capek's play presents a paradise where robot machines initially provide many benefits for humans, but in the end bring an equal amount of blight in the form of unemployment and social unrest.

story published in 1942 by Isaac Asimov. One of the first robots Asimov wrote about was a robo-therapist. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor, Joseph Weizenbaum, wrote the Eliza program in 1966, a modern counterpart to Asimov's fictional character. Weizenbaum initially programmed Eliza with 240 lines of code to simulate a psychotherapist. The program answered questions with questions.