As characters in books, plays, comics and films, robots have represented our hopes and fears for what the future might hold for over a century.
These different media have played a powerful role shaping our expectations of what robots should look like—but where did it all begin?
Will robots replace us?
Since the early 1900s, writers and filmmakers have used robots to represent our growing uncertainty about humanity’s place in the world, and our fears of being displaced by machines—or of even turning into them.
The industrial age gave rise to machines that started to take on factory jobs previously done by people.
© Universal History Archive/UIG / Science & Society Picture Library
Workers became responsible for keeping the machines running. People began to feel that they were being replaced by machines, or even becoming machines themselves.
This became a common theme in popular culture, giving rise to some of the first robot characters.
As a human transformed into a machine, the Tin Woodman (Tin Man) from L. Frank Baum’s 1900 book 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' is often believed to symbolise the dehumanization and hopelessness felt by industrial workers in the period the book was written.
L. Frank Baum went on to create an entirely mechanical character called 'Tik-Tok' in his 1907 book 'Ozma of Oz'.
Tik-Tok is often cited as one of the very first ‘robots’ (in all but name) in literature.
….[the Tin Man] is as alive as we are, ‘cause he was born a real man, and got his tin body a little at a time—first a leg and then a finger and then an ear——for the reason that he had so many accidents with his ax. […]This copper man [Tik Tok] is not alive at all!
L. Frank Baum
Where does the word 'robot' come from?
The word ‘robot’ originated in a play called ‘Rossum’s Universal Robots’ (R.U.R), written in 1920 by Czech playwright Karel Capek. In Czech, ‘robota’ means ‘labour’ or ‘drudgery’.
Capek’s ‘Robots’ were artificial people who did work for humans happily at first but who later rebelled and caused the extinction of the human race. The ‘Robots’ described in the play were creatures that could be mistaken for humans rather than machines:
HELENA: (sits) Where are you from?
SULLA: From here, the factory
HELENA: Oh, you were born here.
SULLA: Yes I was made here.
HELENA: (startled) What?
DOMIN: (laughing) Sulla isn't a person, Miss Glory, she's a robot.Karel Capek, 'R.U.R.' (1920)
Rossum's Universal Robots had an influence on the first robot actually made in Britain, which has the letters ‘R.U.R’ emblazoned on its chest. Built in 1928 and named Eric, the robot was constructed to take the place of the Duke of York when he was unable to attend the opening of an exhibition in London.
Robots on the silver screen
Science Museum Group Collection
In 1927 Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' featured Maria, the first robot character in a blockbuster film.
In the plot, an inventor builds the robot to replace the real human character of Maria.
The robot goes on to ruin the real Maria’s reputation, starting an uprising and causing chaos.
Later, Maria’s design strongly influenced the look of Star Wars droid 'C-3P0'.
Could robots help humans out?
Robots haven't always been seen as a threat. In the 1950s and 60s, the world was recovering from war—times were good, industries were boomingand people were more affluent than ever.
Robots began to embody people’s optimism for the future.
These gleaming, broad-shouldered men of metal would be performers, home helpsand companions, signalling easier, happier times ahead.
Toy robots provided the classic image of a robot in popular culture. Theywere hugely popular, playingto themes of new technology, space exploration and a future beyond Earth that captured the public’s imagination at the time.
Some robots were even scaled up to full human size.
'George' was built in 1949 by Tony Sale using scrap metal from a grounded WW2 plane. The robot was widely praised by newspaper reporters and, described as a model for the domestic robot of the future.
Science Museum Group Collection
'Cygan' (sometimes called Gygan) was built to open an exhibition in Italy by Dr Piero Fiorito, where it was described as 'l’uomo elettrionico del futouro' (the electronic man of the future).
Cygan later came to London, where the press speculated that 'there may yet well be a time when robots like Gygan are accepted as part of our everyday life, automotons as gentle as lambs for chores like babysitting, and the strength of a dozen Samsons for more ominous purposes.'
Dr Piero Fiorito/Jerry Wallace/Science Museum Group Collection, CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0
Robots still reflect our optimism for the role of technology in our future.
Characters such as Astroboy, C-3P0 in Star Warsor Baymax from Big Hero 6all help us imagine a world where robots are not the destroyers of humanity, but its helpers, companions, and perhaps even friends.
- How we (re)built Eric the robot (Science Museum Blog)
- The science of Star Wars (Science Museum Blog)
