WEBVTT

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Mysteries of vernacular:

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Robot,

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a machine capable of carrying out

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a programmable series of actions.

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The origin of the word robot

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dates back more than a thousand years

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to the era of serfdom in central Europe

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when servitude was the currency for rent.

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In those days,

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the Old Church Slavonic word rabota

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described the forced labor of the people.

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A slight adjustment of spelling,

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and rabota became the Czech robota,

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which, in addition to defining the toil of the serfs,

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was also used figuratively

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to describe any kind of hard work or drudgery.

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In 1920, Czech writer Karel Capek published

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a science fiction play called "R.U.R.",

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short for "Rossum's Universal Robots."

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The story featured automated machines

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with distinctly human features

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that, until they revolt,

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catered to the whims of the people of Earth.

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Capek originally considered

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calling these hard-working machines labori

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from the Latin word for labor,

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but he worried it sounded a bit too scholarly.

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He opted, instead, to emphasize their enslaved state

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by naming them roboti,

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or robot in English.

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"R.U.R." was wildly successful,

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and when it was translated into English in 1923,

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the word robot was enthusiastically embraced.

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Though most of today's robots look

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quite different than Capek imagined,

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they've become just as popular as he predicted.

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Unlike in "R.U.R.", though,

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our robots haven't risen up against us,

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and here's hoping it stays that way!