R.U.R. and the Vision of Artificial Life

Karel Čapek (1890–1938) was a Czech novelist, short story writer, playwright, and essayist best known for his dystopian works. He was the author of War with the Newts, The Makropulos Affair, The Absolute at Large, The White Disease, and many other notable works.Jitka Čejková is Associate Professor in the Chemical Robotics Laboratory at the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague. Her research focuses on how chemical engineers can contribute to artificial life research.

• INTRODUCTION ixJitka ČejkováR.U.R. (ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS) 1Karel Čapek, translated by Štěpán S. ŠimekTRANSLATOR’S NOTE 99ESSAYS 1 ROBOTS AND THE PRECOCIOUS BIRTH OF SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY 105Julyan Cartwright 2 ANOTHER METHOD WITH THE POTENTIAL TO DEVELOP LIFE 117Nathaniel Virgo3 HUMANS AND MACHINES: DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES121Carlos Gershenson4 R.U.R. AND THE ROBOT REVOLUTION: INTELLIGENCE AND LABOR, SOCIETY AND AUTONOMY 133Inman Harvey5 IT WASN’T WRONG TO DREAM: THE PARADISE OR HELL OF OUR JOBLESS FUTURE 147Julie Nováková6 R.U.R.: A SHREWD PLUTOCRAT, A GENIUS ENGINEER, AND AN ANTI-SUE WALK INTO A BAR 153Lana Sinapayen 7 ARTIFICIAL PANPSYCHISM 161George Musser8 WHAT IS “THE SECRET OF LIFE”? THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM IN ČAPEK’S R.U.R. 169Tom Froese9 THE ROBOT 177Jana Horáková10 IS THE “SOUL” SYNONYMOUS WITH CONSCIOUSNESS? 193Sina Khajehabdollahi11 SCIENCE WITHOUT CONSCIENCE IS THE SOUL’S PERDITION 199Antoine Pasquali12 KAREL ČAPEK: THE VISIONARY OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ARTIFICIAL LIFE 207Hiroki Sayama13 ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL XENOBOTS 213Josh Bongard14 WHY ARE NO MORE CHILDREN BEING BORN? 217Hemma Philamore15 LOVE IN THE TIME OF ROOMBA 221Seth Bullock16 THE LESSON OF AFFECTION FROM THE WEAK ROBOTS 227Dominique Chen17 GENERATIVE ETHICS IN ARTIFICIAL LIFE 233Takashi Ikegami18 FROM R.U.R. TO ROBOT EVOLUTION 241Geoff Nitschke and Gusz Eiben19 ROBOTS AT THE EDGE OF CHAOS AND THE PHASE TRANSITIONS OF LIFE 251Miguel Aguilera and Iñigo R. Arandia20 ROBOTIC LIFE BEYOND EARTH 259Olaf Witkowski AFTERWORD: “THE AUTHOR OF THE ROBOTS DEFENDS HIMSELF” 265Karel ČapekCONTRIBUTORS 269ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 275NOTES 277INDEX 289

“R.U.R. is fascinating and bizarre. . . . The most important contribution of the volume is a new translation of the play by Štěpán Šimek . . . who manages to capture the surreal weirdness of Čapek's dark comedy of errors while making the text accessible to contemporary audiences. . . . Čapek's masterpiece reminds us first that just because we can does not mean we should.”—Science“[The essays] are full of surprising insights and together constitute a fascinating experiment in how scientists might cast new light on a literary classic. In the process, they confirm the prescience of the radical questions Čapek raised a hundred years ago. . . . In our age of ChatGPT . . . we may return to Čapek for his prescient sense of how market logic underwrites scientific certainty, and vice versa.” — Los Angeles Review of Books“Makes for fascinating reading.”—IEEE Spectrum“A must-read for anyone interested in ALife.”—Irish Times“We are still reading [Čapek] today, and as R.U.R and the Vision of Artificial Life shows, finding new significance in everything that emerged from minds such as . . . Čapek’s.”—Orwell Society“The translation of the play, by Štĕpán Šimek, is a revelation. . . . The book is well worth buying and adding to reading lists on the basis of Šimek's achievement. . . . Fans of Čapek, and proponents of the possibilities of literature for investigating histories and philosophies of science, should be grateful to Jitka Čejková and Štĕpán Šimek for introducing his wonderful work to a new generation.”—British Journal for the History of Science"Čapek’s far-seeing tragicomic satire blurs the lines between the human and the biomechanical."—Arts Fuse“[A] stimulating volume . . . Štěpán S. Šimek gives us a bracing new translation.”—Issues in Science and Technology"R.U.R. is of course superb, the new translation and the translator’s note by Štěpán Šimek are helpful, and the essays are interesting and worth reading."—Technology & Culture