Editing R.U.R. (section)

== Čapek's conception of robots ==
[[File:Wpa-marionette-theater-presents-rur.jpg|thumb|U.S. WPA [[Federal Theatre Project]] poster for the production by the Marionette Theatre, New York, 1939]]
The robots described in Čapek's play are not robots in the popularly understood sense of an automaton. They are not mechanical devices, but rather artificial
biological organisms that may be mistaken for humans. A comic scene at the beginning of the play shows Helena arguing with her future husband, Harry Domin, because she cannot believe his secretary is a robotess:

<blockquote><poem>
DOMIN: Sulla, let Miss Glory have a look at you.
HELENA: (stands and offers her hand) Pleased to meet you.  It must be very hard for you out here, cut off from the rest of the world.
SULLA: I do not know the rest of the world Miss Glory. Please sit down.
HELENA: (sits) Where are you from?
SULLA: From here, the factory.
HELENA: Oh, you were born here.
SULLA: Yes I was made here.
HELENA: (startled) What?
DOMIN: (laughing) Sulla isn't a person, Miss Glory, she's a robot.
HELENA: Oh, please forgive me...
</poem></blockquote>

His robots resemble more modern conceptions of man-made life forms, such as the [[Replicants]] in ''[[Blade Runner]]'', the "hosts" in the [[Westworld (TV series)|''Westworld'' TV series]] and the humanoid [[Cylon (reimagining)|Cylons]] in the re-imagined ''[[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'', but in Čapek's time there was no conception of modern [[genetic engineering]] ([[DNA]]'s role in [[heredity]] was not confirmed until 1952). There are descriptions of kneading-troughs for robot skin, great vats for liver and brains, and a factory for producing bones. Nerve fibers, arteries, and intestines are spun on factory bobbins, while the robots themselves are assembled like automobiles.<ref name="jr">Rieder, John "Karl Čapek" in Mark Bould (ed.) (2010) ''Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction''.  London, Routledge. {{ISBN|9780415439503}}. pp. 47–51.</ref> Čapek's robots are living biological beings, but they are still ''assembled'', as opposed to ''grown'' or ''born''.

One critic has described Čapek's robots as epitomizing "the traumatic transformation of modern society by the [[First World War]] and the [[Fordism|Fordist]] assembly line".<ref name="jr" />

=== Origin of the word robot ===
[[File:RUR logo (Aventinum 1920).jpg|thumb|Logo of Rossum's Universal Robots corporation, from the first edition title page (1920)]]
The play introduced the word ''[[robot]]'', which displaced older words such as "[[automaton]]" or "[[android (robot)|android]]" in languages around the world.  In an article in ''[[Lidové noviny]]'', Karel Čapek named his brother [[Josef Čapek|Josef]] as the true inventor of the word.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://capek.misto.cz/english/robot.html |title=Who did actually invent the word 'robot' and what does it mean? |access-date=25 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130727132806/http://capek.misto.cz/english/robot.html |archive-date=27 July 2013}}</ref><ref>[[Ivan Margolius|Margolius, Ivan]] (Autumn 2017) [https://czechfriends.net/images/RobotsMargoliusJul2017.pdf "The Robot of Prague"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911115134/https://czechfriends.net/images/RobotsMargoliusJul2017.pdf |date=11 September 2017 }} ''The Friends of Czech Heritage Newsletter'' no. 17, pp.3-6</ref>  In Czech, ''robota'' means [[Unfree labour|forced labour]] of the kind that [[Serfdom|serfs]] had to perform on their masters' lands and is derived from ''rab'', meaning "slave".<ref name=dict>{{Cite web |url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/robot |title=robot |publisher=Free Online Dictionary |access-date=25 July 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130706182123/http://www.thefreedictionary.com/robot |archive-date=6 July 2013 }}</ref>

The name ''Rossum'' is an allusion to the Czech word ''rozum'', meaning "reason", "wisdom", "intellect" or "common sense".<ref name="ar" /> It has been suggested that the allusion might be preserved by translating "Rossum" as "Reason" but only the Majer/Porter version translates the word as "Reason".<ref name="ik" />