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www.etymonline.com

1923, “mechanical person,” also “person whose work or activities are entirely mechanical,” from the English translation of the 1920 play “R.U.R.” (“Rossum’s Universal Robots”) by Karel Capek (1890-1938), from Czech robotnik “forced worker,” from robota “forced labor, compulsory service, drudgery,” from robotiti “to work, drudge,” from an Old Czech source akin to Old Church Slavonic rabota “servitude,” from rabu “slave” (from Old Slavic *orbu-, from PIE *orbh- “pass from one status to another;” see orphan).

  • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    13·
    7 hours ago

    I recently learned this while learning about the reforms Maria Theresa made during her reign. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Patent

    On some estates, the landlords demanded that the peasants work up to seven days per week in tilling the nobles’ land, so that the only time available for the peasants to till their own land was at night.

    She enacted a system to convert the labour contracts into leases (Raabisation), which worked well, but

    The nobles also claimed that the system of forced labour had no connection with the peasants’ poverty, which was a result of the peasants’ own wastefulness and the increased royal taxes.

    At one point her finance minister attempted to make the nobles also pay taxes.

    This all sounds familiar.

      • I Cast Fist@programming.devOP
        3·
        2 hours ago

        It’s also why the rich and powerful want to control the education the serfs receive, so they only know the bare minimum for doing work, plus a bunch of lies to keep them fighting themselves instead of their lords