How Long Have Robots Been Around?
Many ancient mythologies include artificial people, such as the mechanical servants built by the Greek god Hephaestus[18] (Vulcan to the Romans), the clay golems of Jewish legend and clay giants of Norse legend, and Galatea, the mythical statue of Pygmalion that came to life. In the 4th century BC, the Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarentum postulated a mechanical steam-operated bird he called “The Pigeon”. Hero of Alexandria (10–70 AD) created numerous user-configurable automated devices, and described machines powered by air pressure, steam and water.[19] Su Song built a clock tower in China in 1088 featuring mechanical figurines that chimed the hours.[20] Al-Jazari’s programmable humanoid robotsAl-Jazari (1136–1206), a Muslim inventor during the Artuqid dynasty, designed and constructed a number of automated machines, including kitchen appliances, musical automata powered by water, and the first programmable humanoid robots in 1206. The robots appeared as four musicians on a boat
The word “robot” comes from the play “R.U.R.” (standing for “Rossum’s Universal Robots”), written in 1920 by Karel Capek, a Czechoslovakian writer. The word robit means “work” in the Czech language, and robata means “forced labor.” Capek coined the word robot for mechanical workers that, in the play, develop intelligence and eve
