Robots: Evolution of a Cultural Icon examines the development of robot iconography in fine art over the past 50 years. In 1920, the term robot was coined from a Czech word robota, which means tedious labor. Since then, the image and the idea of a robot have evolved remarkably from an awkward, mechanical creature to a sophisticated android with artificial intelligence and the potential for human-like consciousness. As robotic technology catches up with the wild imagination of science fiction novels, movies, and animation, dreams and fears anticipated in these stories may also become reality. Artists included in the exhibition have responded to the technological innovation with optimism, pessimism, and humor, presenting work that ultimately explores our ambivalent attitudes towards robots.

And an introduction from JoAnne Northrup, Senior Curator:

Elektro was a robot presented by Westinghouse at the 1939 World’s Fair that helped bring the robot into public consciousness, as well as present an idea of what the future of robotics would be. Seven feet tall, this steel humanoid robot walked by voice command, talked, moved its head/arms and even smoked cigarettes. Elektro’s voice used a 78-rpm record player, saying lines including “If you use me well, I can be your slave” — similar to the Lil’ Abner comic. Not only was Elektro made in the image of man, his ability to smoke distinguishes his activities closer to humans than a machine. This fascinating diagram shows the moving components of Elektro, including his bellows.

1) Dave interfaced a dot matrix printer with his macbook – pure genius
2) the analysis Robby conducts is based on actual data that it aggregates
3) the social commentary associated with a project like this

David notes this description on his website:

Robby the Racist Robot is a playful way for people to consider our mass collection of data and information, and how it can be used or mis-used depending on its context. The scanner gathers a skin tone sample and links the profile to a country of origin based on a pigment chromatic scale from the early 20th century. The system then loads and parses through X number of databases filled with up-to-date statistics for your country. For example, if 40% of the population is female, the system uses an algorithm and 40% of the time will determine you are female and 60% of the time you will be male. This is done with all of the statistics before speaking and printing the information. Obviously this will result in stats that are incorrect, and different, every time but are still based in fact.

I’m amazed that Robby aggregates all the data to perform its calculations. And while the machine misinterprets the “conclusions” it comes to, I wanted to share this project in case it could inspire Bill Turkel at Digital History Hacks or others to think of similar ways a project like Robby could be created (and interpreted correctly) using historical data. Further information is at David’s website.

I should probably add the 1934 Fresno Bee article “Giant Robots, controlled by wireless, to fight our battles” to my timeline, a reoccurring idea during this early period of robot history. Matt highlights the following quote from the R.U.R. review:

After they are assembled he can be sold in wholesale lots to various industrial concerns and to nations as soldiers against the Robot armies of other nations

Beyond fantasies of robots fighting wars for us, what seems to be at play are issues of power. There was the fear of robots obtaining too much power. There was also the desire to control and enslave robots. Tracing the roots of R.U.R. back to Frankenstein, there’s certainly a strong message regarding power and the desire to control. Most importantly, these visions of the future didn’t have to be plausible – they served a purpose within the culture of the time. The question remains, what was the purpose of the robot within our culture at that time?

1921 – R.U.R. premiers in Prague and popularizes the term robot
1927 – the silent science fiction film Metropolis by Fritz Lang is produced in Germany and released featuring a female robot
1937 – Al Capp publishes his Lil’ Abner comic strip featuring the “savage” robot
1938 – a 35-minute adaptation of a section of R.U.R. was broadcast on BBC Television
1939 – Elektro, the “first true robot built in the United States” was unveiled at the World’s Fair in New York, popularizing robots in the United States
1942 – Asimov introduces his “Three Laws of Robotics” in his short story Runaround

By focusing on Al Capp’s comic, I’m trying to decode the influences of his robot character. Can anyone point me in the direction of literature that would augment my understanding of early robot history, pre-Asimov? I would be interested to see if the rhetoric I commented on in my previous post occurs in other instances as well.

The term “robot” literally means, “forced labor” in Czech – the language that Rossum’s Universal Robots was originally written in. That may help explain this panel:

A complete version of the comic was originally posted on Paleo-future.

The comic also reminds me of the short but comical book by Daniel H. Wilson entitled “How to survive a robot uprising.” In his book, Wilson plays upon fears within popular culture that technology, specifically robots, will one day destroy humanity. Focusing on recent appearences of robots in popular culture, like the movie I, Robot he shows this as a contemporary problem, however I wonder if there is a larger historical framework that could be developed. Wilson sits on the jury at the Robot Hall of Fame, and just released a new book entitled “Where’s My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived.”

Here is a very lengthy video where Wilson discusses his first book, and digs deeper into robot fears within popular culture.