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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

#91

Post by lupusreal »

1-more wrote: post #87
JKCalhoun wrote: post #19

His robot was hijacked to mean a mechanical man with gears and wires inside and he objected to that. I'm thinking of course that the public only had experience with these things — or perhaps this was another fear of the time, the mechanization of jobs, and so the robot became the perfect avatar for this fear and so evolved. But surely the idea of a mechanical man predates the term, robot. Automatons? Or is the distin…

> But surely the idea of a mechanical man predates the term, robot. Automatons? Greek myth has Hephaestus (Vulcan to the Romans) making a bunch of robots. Talos was a giant humanoid guardian of Crete made of bronze. I can't remember the names of his forge workers, but there were two of them and they worked with him pumping bellows and hammering metal.

Galatea is a marble statue which the sculptor falls in love with. The statue is then animated by Aphrodite.

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

#92

Post by robertlagrant »

lolinder wrote: post #51
robertlagrant wrote: post #35

> whose research interests arguably make her one of the most qualified people to write about Čapek’s perspective on robots. “The chemical robots in the form of microparticles that we designed and investigated, and that had properties similar to living cells, were much closer to Čapek’s original ideas than any other robots today,” Čejková explains in the book’s introduction This doesn't sound right at all. The play's…

Keep reading to the extract from Čapek himself. The primary thing that he emphasizes about his robots is that they were biological in nature, and the primary thing he disliked about where they went from there is that robots became a word that referred to mechanical technology. The scale of the robots didn't matter to him as much as the fact that they specifically were not mechanical.

Possibly that's because the scale wasn't changed. If you can imagine the plot being less changed by microscopic chemical (not biological even) machines than by the human-sized and shaped things being made of metal, not organics, then fair enough, but I can't.

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

#93

Post by paganel »

beebeepka wrote: post #90
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…

In Bulgaria, we use "работа" (rabota) but eventually adopted "robotya" as a slang for working hard as a robot. Man, I really should travel more around Europe. COVID ruined my last planned vacation and I've stayed at home since then.

As your neighbor from the North (Romania) I highly recommend visiting the general Central and Eastern European area.

In the last few years we’ve been to Prague, short stay in Vienna, Bratislava, Ohrid (spent a night in Pernik on the way there, which I count as part of the experience) and I’d also put Athens and Southern Greece/the Peloponnese on the list (even though it’s not Eastern nor Central European). All very interesting and beautiful places in their own way (yes, even Athens), I highly recommend them.

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

#94

Post by neuromanser »

dvdkon wrote: post #27
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…

> "Robota" is a job or some work that one has to do, not necessarily forced as Google suggests. This is a popular misconception among speakers of other slavic languages, but the Czech word "robota" really does refer to forced work performed by feudal serfs: https://prirucka.ujc.cas.cz/?slovo=robota

Yes, robota has a different meaning in Czech (mandatory work performed by serfs for the benefit of their landlord) than in eg. Slovak or Russian where it means simply "work". Cf. Slovak phrase "Idem do roboty".

Btw Rossum in “Rossum’s Universal Robots” means "Reason".

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

#96

Post by UncleSlacky »

jccalhoun wrote: post #95

I wonder when the english (at least American english) pronunciation of robot changed? I sometimes listen to old radio dramas as I fall asleep and the older the show the more likely they are to say "row butt" instead of "row bot."

Isaac Asimov used to say "row butt" but I can't think of anyone else who did/does.

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

#97

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

#98

Post by pvg »

jojojaf wrote: post #12
xnorswap wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I say go the Slavic route and lose all the articles; "Man who coined word 'Robot' defends himself" Fits with the 'robot' theme

go the Slavic route

полека, лампата!

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

#99

Post by [deleted] »

jefftk wrote: post #61
lupire wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

slave (n.) c. 1300, sclave, esclave, "person who is the chattel or property of another," from Old French esclave (13c.) and directly from Medieval Latin Sclavus "slave" (source also of Italian schiavo, French esclave, Spanish esclavo), originally "Slav" (see Slav); so used in this secondary sense because of the many Slavs sold into slavery by conquering peoples. https://www.etymonline.com/word/slave

[deleted]

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

#100

Post by madeofpalk »

jccalhoun wrote: post #95

I wonder when the english (at least American english) pronunciation of robot changed? I sometimes listen to old radio dramas as I fall asleep and the older the show the more likely they are to say "row butt" instead of "row bot."

When I think about old fashiony ways to pronounce robot, the only thing i think of is Zoidberg pronoucning it "rowbit" https://youtu.be/mh5NSmVs_uk?t=26
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