The R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)

R.U.R. (Rosumovi Umělí Roboti) (Rossum's Artificial Robots, but usually translated as R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) to preserve to acronym) is a science fiction play by Karel Čapek. It premiered in Prague in 1921, and was first published in English, in a translation by Paul Selver, in 1923.

It popularized the word robot, which displaced older words such as "automaton" or "android" in languages around the world. In its original Czech, robota means drudgery or servitude. The name Rossum is an allusion to the Czech word rozum, meaning "reason", intellect. (It has been suggested that the allusion might be preserved by translating "Rossum" as "Reasson", but all published translations to date have left the name untouched.)

After having finished the manuscript, Čapek realized that he had created a modern version of the old Golem Legend.

It is dark, but not hopeless, and was successful in its day in Europe and the United States.

A more modern 1990 translation in English is available in Towards the Radical Center: A Karel Čapek Reader, published by Catbird Press.

An Esperanto translation is available as a free e-book from the eLibrejo, titled as R. U. R. - Rossumaj Universal-Robotoj.

External links

• General information on the play, including a plot summary and photographs from various historical productions
• R. U. R. - Rossumaj Universal-Robotoj

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