Rossums Universal Robots

Rossum's Universal Robots, often better known as RUR, premiered in Prague in 1921, a science fiction play by [Karel Capek]?. It is the origin of the word robot in English. In its original Czech, robota means drudgery or servitude.

It is dark, but not hopeless, and was successful in its day in Europe and the United States. It was first translated into English in 1923 but a more accurate 1990 translation in English is available in Towards the Radical Center, published by Catbird Press.