ROBOTS io5
arms, and move its head and jaw. Historians believe that this was the
first realistic design of a humanoid machine.
The first crude but functioning robot was built in 1738 by Jacques
de Vaucanson, who made an android that could play the flute, as well
as a mechanical duck.
The word "robot" comes from the 1920 Czech play R.U.R. by playwright Rarel Capek ("robot" means "drudgery" in the Czech language
and "labor" in Slovak). In the play a factory called Rossum's Universal
Robots creates an army of robots to perform menial labor. (Unlike ordinary machines, however, these robots are made of flesh and blood.)
Eventually the world economy becomes dependent on these robots.
But the robots are badly mistreated and finally rebel against their human masters, killing them off. In their rage, however, the robots kill all
the scientists who can repair and create new robots, thereby dooming
themselves to extinction. In the end, two special robots discover that
they have the ability to reproduce and the potential to become a new
robot Adam and Eve.
Robots were also the subject of one of the earliest and most expensive silent movies ever made, Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang in
1927 in Germany. The story is set in the year 2026, and the working
class has been condemned to work underground in wretched, squalid
factories, while the ruling elite play aboveground. A beautiful woman,
Maria, has earned the trust of the workers, but the ruling elite fear that
one day she might lead them to revolt. So they ask an evil scientist to
make a robot copy of Maria. Eventually, the plot backfires because the
robot leads the workers to revolt against the ruling elite and bring
about the collapse of the social system.
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is different from the previous technologies we have discussed so far in that the fundamental laws that
underpin it are still poorly understood. Although physicists have a
good understanding of Newtonian mechanics, Maxwell's theory of
light, relativity, and the quantum theory of atoms and molecules, the
basic laws of intelligence are still shrouded in mystery. The Newton of
AI probably has not yet been born.
arms, and move its head and jaw. Historians believe that this was the
first realistic design of a humanoid machine.
The first crude but functioning robot was built in 1738 by Jacques
de Vaucanson, who made an android that could play the flute, as well
as a mechanical duck.
The word "robot" comes from the 1920 Czech play R.U.R. by playwright Rarel Capek ("robot" means "drudgery" in the Czech language
and "labor" in Slovak). In the play a factory called Rossum's Universal
Robots creates an army of robots to perform menial labor. (Unlike ordinary machines, however, these robots are made of flesh and blood.)
Eventually the world economy becomes dependent on these robots.
But the robots are badly mistreated and finally rebel against their human masters, killing them off. In their rage, however, the robots kill all
the scientists who can repair and create new robots, thereby dooming
themselves to extinction. In the end, two special robots discover that
they have the ability to reproduce and the potential to become a new
robot Adam and Eve.
Robots were also the subject of one of the earliest and most expensive silent movies ever made, Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang in
1927 in Germany. The story is set in the year 2026, and the working
class has been condemned to work underground in wretched, squalid
factories, while the ruling elite play aboveground. A beautiful woman,
Maria, has earned the trust of the workers, but the ruling elite fear that
one day she might lead them to revolt. So they ask an evil scientist to
make a robot copy of Maria. Eventually, the plot backfires because the
robot leads the workers to revolt against the ruling elite and bring
about the collapse of the social system.
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is different from the previous technologies we have discussed so far in that the fundamental laws that
underpin it are still poorly understood. Although physicists have a
good understanding of Newtonian mechanics, Maxwell's theory of
light, relativity, and the quantum theory of atoms and molecules, the
basic laws of intelligence are still shrouded in mystery. The Newton of
AI probably has not yet been born.