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The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

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Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#71

Post by oli-g »

rebolek wrote: post #59
petr25102018 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the region where I was growing up next to Poland, we say "chodit do roboty" when describing normal work.

I don't doubt that, you're probably from somewhere around Ostrava. There are of course regional differences. I'm from Brno and instead of "jít do práce" we usually used "jít do hokny", "jít do háčku", or just "jít makat". Whenever I hear word "robota", I connect it with my grand-grand-...-father who was forced to work ("robota") by "dráb" (overseer) and didn't like it. So he cut overseer's head with his scythe, becam…

I did not expect to read hantec on HN today. Enough internet and about time for a škopek I guess.

Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#72

Post by thinkertraveler »

lupire wrote: post #34
pawelwentpawel wrote: post #17

When asking Google - what the etymology of the "robot" word is, the answer is from Czech word "robota" which is they translate as "forced labor". While I don't speak Czech, I speak Polish which is a close cousin. For years it didn't occur to me that "robot" and the shortened "bot" words have slavic etymology. In Polish "robić" means to do (carry out, perform etc.) something. "Robię kawę" means "I'm making a coffee" a…

Speaking of Slavic etymology and robota, "slave" is derived from "Slav".

[flagged]

Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#73

Post by thinkertraveler »

lupire wrote: post #34
pawelwentpawel wrote: post #17

When asking Google - what the etymology of the "robot" word is, the answer is from Czech word "robota" which is they translate as "forced labor". While I don't speak Czech, I speak Polish which is a close cousin. For years it didn't occur to me that "robot" and the shortened "bot" words have slavic etymology. In Polish "robić" means to do (carry out, perform etc.) something. "Robię kawę" means "I'm making a coffee" a…

Speaking of Slavic etymology and robota, "slave" is derived from "Slav".

[flagged]

Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#74

Post by saalweachter »

droopyEyelids wrote: post #65
thinkertraveler wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I wonder if the use of 'ottoman' as 'footrest' in English has a similar origin story. Showing the soles of your feet to someone is extremely disrespectful in many middle eastern cultures including the Ottoman culture.

Not really; it was more along the lines of "Ottoman-style seating" being referred to as "an ottoman", in the same way people refer to "a long chair" (chaise longue) as a "chaise".

Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#75

Post by FearNotDaniel »

xnorswap wrote: post #10
Almondsetat wrote: post #3

Was the title automatically editorialized? The article clearly says it's "The" man who coined the word "Robot"

Despite a policy of "use original titles", the HN software automatically mangles titles. This is one of the more bizarre auto-editing of titles it does because of how pointless it feels. "The man who" is established English convention. "A man who" is changing the meaning for the sake of it without producing a clearer title. The person is unambiguously defined, so the definitive article is entirely correct. If the per…

> If the person isn't one of a set of people to whom the description could apply, it makes no sense to use the indefinite article.

> he’s the guy who (along with his brother Josef) invented the word “robot.”

Just to be superly, unnecessarily pedantic: in this case the person is one of a set of people, so although I don't agree with the title being rewritten, it does actually make sense.

Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#76

Post by stcredzero »

xnorswap wrote: post #10
Almondsetat wrote: post #3

Was the title automatically editorialized? The article clearly says it's "The" man who coined the word "Robot"

Despite a policy of "use original titles", the HN software automatically mangles titles. This is one of the more bizarre auto-editing of titles it does because of how pointless it feels. "The man who" is established English convention. "A man who" is changing the meaning for the sake of it without producing a clearer title. The person is unambiguously defined, so the definitive article is entirely correct. If the per…

This is one of the more bizarre auto-editing of titles it does because of how pointless it feels.

Someone should take a page from "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" and create an AutoGPT "replicant" version of HN, including LLM versions of the moderators, PG, and the top commenters and submitters.

Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#77

Post by blendergeek »

dang, can we change the title back to the original. This article is about "the man who the word robot" not "a man who coined the word robot". I know that often "the man" is used for clickbait purposes. Here it is just being accurate and to the point. The title being used now suggests that many people have coined the word robot which is untrue.

Re: The man who coined the word "robot" defends himself

#78

Post by [deleted] »

blendergeek wrote: post #77

dang, can we change the title back to the original. This article is about "the man who the word robot" not "a man who coined the word robot". I know that often "the man" is used for clickbait purposes. Here it is just being accurate and to the point. The title being used now suggests that many people have coined the word robot which is untrue.

[deleted]
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