121–130 of 131 posts
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.
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
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."
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.
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.
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".
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dildog posted a meme on this topic recently on Mastodon: A group of monks sit around the Buddha. Monk: Buddha, what makes us human? Buddha: Selecting all images with traffic lights. https://hackers.town/@dildog/111644483541067122
Sorry for an intellectually vacuous comment, but: Wow! Somehow this hit way harder than I was ready for!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.