I found this while shelving at Green Apple:
"The word 'robot' originally appeared in Karl Capek's [sic] play R.U.R., which was first staged in 1921 in Czechoslovakia... R.U.R. stands for "Rossum's Universal Robots." Rossum, an English industrial, produced artificial human beings designed to do the labor of the world and to free humanity for a life of creative leisure. The word 'robot' is from a Czech word meaning 'compulsory labor'.
Though Rossum meant well, it didn't work out as he planned: the robots rebelled, and the human species was destroyed."
-- Issac Asimov, in the introduction to Caves of Steel
Note the robot on the far right above, wearing a human suit and trying to blend in with humans. Crazy. It's awesome that these ideas were explored so long ago. I really never took the time to think about it. Now we're stuck with shit like this:
And even worse, this (which now that I think about it, is just a fucking horrible reimagining of Čapek's R.U.R.):
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