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more about #rur more comments → Klebert L. Hall: "It's well worth reading "The Machine Stops," not least to contemplate how you'd manage if the Internet suddenly crashed." Well, that's a bit much, i... more » gorehound: good stuff.i still love older scifi.19th century scifi has some great stories.you just have to find them out. more » Yamato: Great story and it has a very eerie feel to it, it could make a good movie if done right. more » MosesMonster: This is one of my favorite early Science Fiction stories. It's so eerie how it depicts today's "Normal Life" in a retro fashion so long ago. more » tetracycloide: alternate summary: 'i am make science! i tame machine for use for man!' 'you go to far! you am play gods!' 'no, am progress! am automation! machine wo... more » winshape: I think this was also a Star Trek: TOS episode. more » Ben Babcock: I see computer failure as the logical precursor to computer revolution and am not surprised in the slightest. I don't follow why one would think the ... more » cadrina: 1909 and a guy was writing about computer crash. And was it the first to have something like a computer too? more » Andrew Liptak: That looks a lot like the poster for 'Moon'. more » ZanipoloLebron: I've read RUR and I can tell you now that even though the original describes this as a sprawling brickwork factory layout like the old 1920's factorie... more » thatoneguy42: So THATS where i Heard "Rossum" before Dollhouse... more » Grey_Area: An excellent article, Mr. Strauss. I've never seen a production of R.U.R. but have read the script many years ago. I agree with Dr-Doomsayer that a fi... more » OMG! Ponies!: Query. Maternal unit: where do robots come from? Response. Sometimes, two units develop an artificial symbiotic relationship that permits the pair t... more » corpore-metal: Equals or slaves? That's going to be a very tricky point. But maybe there will be transitional point. Currently our robots are as smart as insects but... more » Log1c: I was going to point out his name was Karel, but then I got to the end and read "senior editor at Smithsonian magazine" and figured he knew something ... more » -
#afternoonreading
A Story About Computer Failure Came Before The First Robot Conquest Story
This year is the 100th anniversary of the first story about the Internet going wrong. E.M. Forster (better known for A Passage To India) wrote "The Machine Stops" in 1909, and you can read it online. More » -
#rur
Will We Finally Get a Truly Great Robot Epic?
Rumor has it that production has begun on a film version of R.U. R., the Czech play where the word "robot" was invented. It's about genetic engineering and robot rebellion, and it could be the best robot movie ever. More » -
#io9backgrounder
Where Do Robots Come From?
The first robots were born on January 25, 1921, the day Karl Capek's play R.U.R. premiered in Prague, more than 80 years before Skynet achieved sentience and declared, "I think, therefore you're all toast."
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