Introduction
Rossum's Universal Robots is a play written by Karel Capek's in 1921. The play introduces us to the world of robots that are machine, which acts like human beings. The play depicts that although robots will initially be beneficial to people, at some point they will dominate the world and turn against people. The play exports different issues that could arise if artificial life were created.
The play starts by a young woman named Helen a representative humanitarian organization visiting a remote island to liberate a poorly oppressed robot. Helen has a feeling that robots are human beings with human sense. However, upon arrival in the island the robot factory manager Domin, convinced her that robots were not real human being although they resemble and act like people. Despite her mission, Helen ends up falling in love and marrying Domin (Capek et al 25). However, Helen remains skeptical about robots. She believes that they have souls, and they can think for themselves and can are able to express their feeling. Nevertheless, the factory continued with production of the robots. At the start, the robot works perfectly; they represent the best possible functionality of normal human being. However, as years went by a number of robots starts to catch what appears to be a virus, they start grinding their teeth, and start behaving abnormally. The factory manager describes this as a multifunction of their system. As the years go by, more robots develop anger and begin revolting against the humans. The play depicts robots taking charge of the world by acting like real human being and starting to oppress human being (Capek et al 85).
Throughout the play, several themes have been depicted. One of the main themes outlined is dominance. The theme is depicted where Domin the manager of the factory can convince Helena that robots were not real human being. Another act of dominance is where Domin is able to convince Helena to marry her. After marriage Domin treat her as an object of chivalry and takes control of her. The play also depicts Domin to be in control since he dominated the art of robot production. Domin alone has access to the manuscript of old Russom, which contain the secret of producing robots. The theme of dominance is also depicted when the robot started developing anger on human beings. The robots took control and started slaughtering human beings. At the end of the play, robots took charge of the world and start dominating human being.
The other theme that is depicted in the play is humanity. Helena is depicted as a sentimental human in the play. Helen, humanity is depicted when she visits a remote island to liberate a poorly oppressed robot. She thinks that robots have human feelings and soul, and, therefore, they should not be oppressed. On the other hand, Domin sees robots as commodities that do not have humor and were supposed to act as laborers. As the play depicts, females have more feelings than their male counterpart. The theme of humanitarian is also depicted where the robots started to express their feeling of anger against human beings who have been oppressing them. A conversation between robots shows that from the long suffering they have become human with souls. As years went by, they started to revolt against human beings by slaughtering them (Capek et al 85).
Capek’s vision of a robot-driven labor force compared to that force in 1920
Today, Capek's vision of robot driven labor force is not as fantastic as it was in 1920. During this period, the world was experiencing an industrial revolution, and there were shortages of the labor force in several emerging industries. The evolution of robots was depicted as the only way to address the challenge of labor shortage in the industries. Capek depicted robots as a machine that worked like a human being and with the capacity to remember everything. The fancy thing of the robot was that they did not have feelings like a human being and, therefore, they would work for long hours without being exhausted. Many industries welcomed the idea of robots to increase the labor force and reduce the cost of production. Significant efforts were made to adopt the robot technology in the production line of several industries to improve productivity.
Today, technological advancement have enabled scientists to improve the creation of robots from what was initially presented by Capek in his play. The modern robots are more advanced, and they are more human like than in the past. They are also able to carry out complex tasks that only human being could perform in the earlier days (Graham, 112). This has been made possible by the use of modernly computerized systems. As technology advances, there is increased use of robots in industries to replace human labor. The increased use of robot technology in the industry has helped companies to increase productivity, reduce the cost of labor, improve service delivery, and improve the quality of production, improve efficiency of the production process among several other benefits. Scientists predict that in the future robots will be more advanced and will be more beneficial than the current ones. They will be able to learn, adjust by themselves, exercise judgment and reprogram themselves.
R.U.R.’S messages compared with robot labor discussions in the media
However, despite the increased benefits associated with the use of robots in industries, the notion and human perspective about their future has changed. There have been several arguments and discussions in the media about the use of robots’ labor. Several questions have also been raised on the use of robot technology to replace human labor in the industry. There is emerging fear that the robot will take control of the world as depicted in Rossum's Universal Robots play (Adams, et al, 96). According to scientists robots, will dominate some of the professional fields by replacing human beings working in those fields. The robots will also inhibit humanity as depicted in the play. According to the author, robots will turn against a human being as an effort to dominate them. There has also been an ethical dilemma concerning the creation of robots. Most of the religions are against the use of robots. They argue that creating accepting robots in the human world is not right, and it is against the will of God. On the other hand, scientist argues that creating human like creatures is expanding God's creation.
According to Kumari et al (25), many people have started to see robots as a threat to humanity. The extreme use of robots in the industry has replaced most of the human labors with machines. Today, millions of citizens have lost their job as factories adopt the use of robots to replace human labor. This is a big threat to the country's economy due to increased rate of unemployment. This proves the notion depicted in the play that robots will dominate human beings. Many people are against the idea of adopting the technology for fear they will lose their jobs when their profession is dominated by robots. Several countries have turned against the use or robot technology in industries to reduce the rate of unemployment Kumari et al, 23).
The negative perception of use of robot in industries as a result of concerns regarding their safety has been used to urge that robots present some form of the safety hazards to workers (Adams, et al, 102). Since robots cannot reason nor make critical judgment by themselves, they become hazardous to a human being working alongside them. At times, they can cause injury to a human being in case of program failure, which can affect its functioning. In the past, it has been reported instances where a program failure in robot system caused death to an employee working closer to the robot. Adoption of robots to carry out some task such as surgery has also been considered as a risky undertaking since they can cause death to a patient in the event of system failure. Other reasons that have changed the modern thinking of use of robot technology in the workplace include high cost of investment. The initial investment of robot technology is very high, and this is limiting their usage in several factories. It is also costly to maintain the robots since they require regular maintenance and also experts of operating and maintain them.
Work cited
Adams, Bryan, et al. Humanoid robots: a new kind of tool. Massachusetts Inst of Tech
Cambridge Artificial Intelligence Lab, 2000.
Capek, Karel, et al. "Rossum's universal robots." Prague, CZ (1920).
Graham, James D. "An Audience of the Scientific Age: Rossum's Universal Robots and
the Production of an Economic Conscience." Grey Room 50 (2013): 112-142.
Kumari, Swati, et al. "Robotic Technology: A Pledge for Future Generation Technology."
