The first robot in literature was...

[Brian G Turner]

...featured in The Steam Man of the Prairies by Edward S. Ellis, published in 1868, apparently.

Firsts: The Steam Man of the Prairies was the first robot in literature

Hat-tip to @BAYLOR for the article.

 

[SilentRoamer]

I think that is brilliant. Some things seem so mundane nowadays.

I prefer these metallic monstrosities to the faux flesh models we see being developed now. Definitely an improvement over Sophia (a chat bot with a mechanical part).

The CES was full of robots! Mostly not working. The blending of AI and robotics is still in its infancy but over the next decade or two I think we will likely see humanoid interactive robots start to be developed.

There are some great talks on AI, GAI and SAI on TEDx and I recommend these to anyone interested.

 

[Toby Frost]

I hate to split hairs, but how about the golem or the talos? Would Frankenstein's Monster could as an android? He's certainly an artificial person.

 

[Randy M.]

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Artist of the Beautiful" was first published in 1844. E.T.A. Hoffman's "The Sandman" was first published in 1816. So I think robots have been around longer than Ellis'. The first mechanism called a robot, though, was in Karel Copek's R.U.R. a play produced in 1920. (All dates courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Randy M.
(Yeah, I like getting all pedantic now and again. Why?)

 

[Venusian Broon]

Nah, these are all a bit too recent.

How about the automatons that Hephaestus constructed?

Mentioned in the Homer's Odyssey and Iliad. And apparently a few other ancient Greek stories but, I'm not up to speed on all the tales.

 

[Venusian Broon]

This is slightly OT, but it got me thinking of other 'firsts'.

'And Ishtar opened her mouth and said, she spoke unto Anu, her father: “My father, give to me the Heaven-Bull that I might slay Gilgamesh in his very place of dwelling. If thou givest me not the Heaven-Bull, I shall crush the gates of Hades and free the shades below. I shall bring up the dead that they might consume the living, and I shall make the dead to outnumber those that yet live.'

From the Epic of Gilgamesh, maybe c. 2100 BCE ??? - first appearance (albeit only threatened) in literature of a zombie apocalypse?

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I've read The Steam Man of the Prairies and the title gizmo is actually a bizarre automobile, which is powered by a engine in the shape of a man, which propels it by running, pumping its legs up and down. A human-shaped machine, yes, but without the consciousness we usually associate with fictional robots.

(And one should note that Karel Čapek's "robots" are actually artificially grown organic people, not machines; what are more properly known as fictional "androids" before that term got mixed up with robots.)

 

[Dave]

So, when actually was the first "Tin Man" then? If all of these examples given are simulacrums and the "Steam Man of the Desert" was actually a car, then the question remains open.

On the subject of Golems, the Jewish mythological version has no intelligence, so does that really count? There are, however, older African folktales about making real people from clay which would.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

A good case can be made for Tik-Tok, the mechanical man created in Ozma of Oz (1907) by L. Frank Baum. He is not alive, but he can think (when you wind up his thinking key.)

 

[BigBadBob141]

Am I right in thinking that the Greek God Vulcan had two hand-maidens/helpers who were made of gold?

 

[BAYLOR]

R.U.R by Karol Capek

a later story to check out Q.U.R by Anthony Boucher

 

[Bick]

The first mechanism called a robot, though, was in Karel Copek's R.U.R. a play produced in 1920. (All dates courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Yes RUR, as in “Rossum’s Universal Robots”, translated from the Czech. With ‘robota’ being Czech for, I think, slave or servant. The first time the word robot was taken from the Czech play and used in an English sense meaning what we think of today, was in Asimov’s first robot story (1940?).

But for earlier examples, not using the term ‘robot’, the 1868 mention seems like a good call, coming a lot earlier than Tik-Tok, which is quite a famous example. I don’t think the ancient’s ideas of golems count (essentially magic, not mechanical), nor do I care for Frankenstein’s monster as a robot (I.e. giving new life to actual tissue as opposed to construction from man-made materials).

 

[BAYLOR]

Nah, these are all a bit too recent.

How about the automatons that Hephaestus constructed?

Mentioned in the Homer's Odyssey and Iliad. And apparently a few other ancient Greek stories but, I'm not up to speed on all the tales.

I haven't opened up copy of either of those works in 40 years . Note to self must reread them.

 

[Vince W]

Can we all finally agree on the correct pronunciation of robot.

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

Am I right in thinking that the Greek God Vulcan had two hand-maidens/helpers who were made of gold?

Found the passage:
Homer, Iliad 18. 416 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"[Hephaistos (Hephaestus) left his bellows] took up a heavy stick in his hand, and went to the doorway limping. And in support of their master moved his attendants. These are golden, and in appearance like living young women. There is intelligence in their hearts, and there is speech in them and strength, and from the immortal gods they have learned how to do things. These stirred nimbly in support of their master."

 

[Danny McG]

Talos
Jason and the Argonauts