R.U.R.

This 1920 play gave the world the word robot, borrowed from a Czech term for forced labor. It is set on an island factory that manufactures artificial workers from synthetic living tissue, and it opens as Helena Glory arrives to campaign for the robots’ rights, only to meet managers who see them as cheap, tireless property. The robots are efficient, obedient, and everywhere, until they are not. What starts as a debate about industry and profit becomes a warning about what happens when humanity builds servants in its own image and forgets to ask what they might want. Sharp, funny, and bleak by turns, Capek’s drama still shapes how we argue about machines and labor. Free PDF and EPUB edition.