R.U.R. and the Vision of Artificial Life
By Karel Capek
Edited by Jitka Cejkova
By Karel Capek
Edited by Jitka Cejkova
By Karel Capek
Edited by Jitka Cejkova
By Karel Capek
Edited by Jitka Cejkova
By Karel Capek
Edited by Jitka Cejkova
By Karel Capek
Edited by Jitka Cejkova
Category: Arts & Entertainment | Literary Criticism | Science & Technology
Category: Arts & Entertainment | Literary Criticism | Science & Technology
Category: Arts & Entertainment | Literary Criticism | Science & Technology
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$29.95
Jan 16, 2024 | ISBN 9780262544504
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Jan 16, 2024 | ISBN 9780262371896
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Jan 16, 2024 | ISBN 9780262371902
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Praise
“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
Table Of Contents
INTRODUCTION ix
Jitka Čejková
R.U.R. (ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS) 1
Karel Čapek, translated by Štěpán S. Šimek
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE 99
ESSAYS
1 ROBOTS AND THE PRECOCIOUS BIRTH OF SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY 105
Julyan Cartwright
2 ANOTHER METHOD WITH THE POTENTIAL TO DEVELOP LIFE 117
Nathaniel Virgo
3 HUMANS AND MACHINES: DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES
121
Carlos Gershenson
4 R.U.R. AND THE ROBOT REVOLUTION: INTELLIGENCE AND LABOR, SOCIETY AND AUTONOMY 133
Inman Harvey
5 IT WASN’T WRONG TO DREAM: THE PARADISE OR HELL OF OUR JOBLESS FUTURE 147
Julie Nováková
6 R.U.R.: A SHREWD PLUTOCRAT, A GENIUS ENGINEER, AND AN ANTI-SUE WALK INTO A BAR 153
Lana Sinapayen
7 ARTIFICIAL PANPSYCHISM 161
George Musser
8 WHAT IS “THE SECRET OF LIFE”? THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM IN ČAPEK’S R.U.R. 169
Tom Froese
9 THE ROBOT 177
Jana Horáková
10 IS THE “SOUL” SYNONYMOUS WITH CONSCIOUSNESS? 193
Sina Khajehabdollahi
11 SCIENCE WITHOUT CONSCIENCE IS THE SOUL’S PERDITION 199
Antoine Pasquali
12 KAREL ČAPEK: THE VISIONARY OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ARTIFICIAL LIFE 207
Hiroki Sayama
13 ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL XENOBOTS 213
Josh Bongard
14 WHY ARE NO MORE CHILDREN BEING BORN? 217
Hemma Philamore
15 LOVE IN THE TIME OF ROOMBA 221
Seth Bullock
16 THE LESSON OF AFFECTION FROM THE WEAK ROBOTS 227
Dominique Chen
17 GENERATIVE ETHICS IN ARTIFICIAL LIFE 233
Takashi Ikegami
18 FROM R.U.R. TO ROBOT EVOLUTION 241
Geoff Nitschke and Gusz Eiben
19 ROBOTS AT THE EDGE OF CHAOS AND THE PHASE TRANSITIONS OF LIFE 251
Miguel Aguilera and Iñigo R. Arandia
20 ROBOTIC LIFE BEYOND EARTH 259
Olaf Witkowski
AFTERWORD: “THE AUTHOR OF THE ROBOTS DEFENDS HIMSELF” 265
Karel Čapek
CONTRIBUTORS 269
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 275
NOTES 277
INDEX 289
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