Bots and Bods: How Robots and Humans Work, from the Inside Out

Bots and Bods: How Robots and Humans Work, from the Inside Out — page 3
Introduction What is a robot Is it a kind of metal person with flashing lights making beeping noises and talking in a funny voice That could be a robot But it’s only part of the story Some bots look like people but many don’t They come in all different shapes colors and sizes from the gigantic to the microscopic Some even look like animals such as insects fish lizards and dogs In 1920 a Czech writer named Karel Čapek first used the word robot in a play In his language it meant forced labor The robots in the play were humanlike machines built to do hard work In the end they rebelled against their human masters Robots started to appear in movies after that and scientists began to build machines that they called robots In the 1960s the first robots were created to work in factories and the bot world has been growing ever since A robot is basically a machine designed by humans that’s programmed to carry out jobs that a person might normally do or find impossible to do Robots are built to do things better than humans and for longer They make life easier and safer for people by doing dangerous boring and dirty tasks Bots can do exactly the same things day in and day out They never get tired and always do what they are told Not many humans can match that