George C. Devol, a largely self-taught inventor who drew from science fiction to help develop Unimate, the revolutionary mechanical arm that became a prototype for robots now widely used on automobile assembly lines and in other industries.. Mr. Devol said that new technology should be simple and practical. “We should take refuge in the fact that very crude systems can accomplish an awful lot,” he once said. “Elegant capabilities are nice, but often unnecessary.” George Devol, Developer of Robot Arm, Dies at 99 - NYTimes.com.

Foxconn to end suicide payments to families - Business - World business - msnbc.com.

Robot Madness: Emotional Disasters | LiveScience.

Let's not let old arguments about 'technology creating unemployment' be a smokescreen for the real issues [..] Ironically, some of the workers say that they are made to feel like robots. It is the responsibility of the large corporations to ensure that the companies making their electronics abide by similar practices as in their home countries. And it is the responsibility of all of us not to buy goods made by workers who are stripped of their rights and dignity.

A video showcasing the robotic technology being developed at Skynet Research as part of our effort to impact human life.

Our most powerful 21st-century technologies - robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech - are threatening to make humans an endangered species.

History: Twelve year old Alfie Johnson of Dinchester, nicknamed Jumbo by his friends because of his plump, hefty figure, followed his football over a wall. On the other side he is attacked by a tiny RAF jet and a squadron of small tanks, part of an experimental mini-robot army being built by the inventor Professor Carter. When he subsequently saves the Professor from being run over by a bus, Carter rewarded Alfie with the position of General of his remote control army. influencial for Noel Sharkey

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

The play begins in a factory that makes artificial people, made of synthetic organic matter, called "robots." Unlike the modern usage of the term, these creatures are closer to the modern idea of cyborgs or even clones, as they can be mistaken for humans and can think for themselves. They seem happy to work for humans, although that changes, and a hostile robot rebellion leads to the extinction of the human race.

Karel Čapek introduced and made popular the frequently used international word robot, which first appeared in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) in 1920. The word robot comes from the word robota, meaning literally "serf labor", and, figuratively, "drudgery" or "hard work" in modern Czech (in Slovak, Russian, Polish, archaic Czech and other Slavic languages the cognate word means simply "work", comparable to German arbeit, with the same meaning.).