{"product_id":"rur-and-the-vision-of-artificial-life-isbn-9780262544504","title":"R.U.R. and the Vision of Artificial Life","description":"\u003cb\u003eA new translation of Karel Čapek’s play \u003ci\u003eR.U.R\u003c\/i\u003e.—which famously coined the term “robot”—and a collection of essays reflecting on the play’s legacy from scientists and scholars who work in artificial life and robotics.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKarel Čapek's “R.U.R.” and the Vision of Artificial Life\u003c\/i\u003e offers a new, highly faithful translation by Štěpán Šimek of Czech novelist, playwright, and critic Karel Čapek’s play \u003ci\u003eR.U.R.: Rossum’s Universal Robots\u003c\/i\u003e, as well as twenty essays from contemporary writers on the 1920 play. \u003ci\u003eR.U.R.\u003c\/i\u003e is perhaps best known for first coining the term “robot” (in Czech, \u003ci\u003erobota\u003c\/i\u003e means serfdom or arduous drudgery). The twenty essays in this new English edition, beautifully edited by Jitka Čejková, are selected from \u003ci\u003eRobot 100\u003c\/i\u003e, an edited collection in Czech with perspectives from 100 contemporary voices that was published in 2020 to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the play.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eČapek’s robots were autonomous beings, but biological, not mechanical, made of chemically synthesized soft matter resembling living tissue, like the synthetic humans in \u003ci\u003eBlade Runner, Westworld\u003c\/i\u003e, or \u003ci\u003eEx Machina\u003c\/i\u003e. The contributors to the collection—scientists and other scholars—explore the legacy of the play and its connections to the current state of research in artificial life, or ALife. Throughout the book, it is impossible to ignore Čapek’s prescience, as his century-old science fiction play raises contemporary questions with respect to robotics, synthetic biology, technology, artificial life, and artificial intelligence, anticipating many of the formidable challenges we face today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003eContributors\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJitka Čejková, Miguel Aguilera, Iñigo R. Arandia, Josh Bongard, Julyan Cartwright, Seth Bullock, Dominique Chen, Gusz Eiben, Tom Froese, Carlos Gershenson, Inman Harvey, Jana Horáková, Takashi Ikegami, Sina Khajehabdollahi, George Musser, Geoff Nitschke, Julie Nováková, Antoine Pasquali, Hemma Philamore, Lana Sinapayen, Hiroki Sayama, Nathaniel Virgo, Olaf WitkowskiINTRODUCTION ix\u003cbr\u003e Jitka Čejková\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eR.U.R. (ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS) 1\u003cbr\u003eKarel Čapek, translated by Štěpán S. Šimek\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTRANSLATOR’S       NOTE 99\u003cbr\u003e ESSAYS \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1 ROBOTS AND THE PRECOCIOUS BIRTH OF SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY 105\u003cbr\u003e Julyan Cartwright \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2 ANOTHER METHOD WITH THE POTENTIAL TO DEVELOP LIFE 117\u003cbr\u003e Nathaniel Virgo\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e3 HUMANS AND MACHINES: DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES\u003cbr\u003e 121\u003cbr\u003e Carlos Gershenson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e4 R.U.R. AND THE ROBOT REVOLUTION: INTELLIGENCE AND LABOR, SOCIETY AND AUTONOMY 133\u003cbr\u003e Inman Harvey\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e5 IT WASN’T WRONG TO DREAM: THE PARADISE OR HELL OF OUR JOBLESS FUTURE 147\u003cbr\u003e Julie Nováková\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e6 R.U.R.: A SHREWD PLUTOCRAT, A GENIUS ENGINEER, AND AN ANTI-SUE WALK INTO A BAR 153\u003cbr\u003e Lana Sinapayen\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 7     ARTIFICIAL     PANPSYCHISM 161\u003cbr\u003e George Musser\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e8 WHAT IS “THE SECRET OF LIFE”? THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM IN ČAPEK’S R.U.R. 169\u003cbr\u003e Tom Froese\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e9     THE     ROBOT 177\u003cbr\u003e Jana Horáková\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e10   IS THE “SOUL” SYNONYMOUS WITH CONSCIOUSNESS? 193\u003cbr\u003e Sina Khajehabdollahi\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e11   SCIENCE WITHOUT CONSCIENCE IS THE SOUL’S PERDITION 199\u003cbr\u003e Antoine Pasquali\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e12   KAREL ČAPEK: THE VISIONARY OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ARTIFICIAL LIFE 207\u003cbr\u003e Hiroki Sayama\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e13   ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL XENOBOTS 213\u003cbr\u003e Josh Bongard\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e14   WHY ARE NO MORE CHILDREN BEING BORN? 217\u003cbr\u003e Hemma Philamore\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e15   LOVE IN THE TIME OF ROOMBA 221\u003cbr\u003e Seth Bullock\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e16   THE LESSON OF AFFECTION FROM THE WEAK ROBOTS 227\u003cbr\u003e Dominique Chen\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e17   GENERATIVE ETHICS IN ARTIFICIAL LIFE 233\u003cbr\u003e Takashi Ikegami\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e18   FROM R.U.R. TO ROBOT EVOLUTION 241\u003cbr\u003e Geoff Nitschke and Gusz Eiben\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e19   ROBOTS AT THE EDGE OF CHAOS AND THE PHASE TRANSITIONS OF LIFE 251\u003cbr\u003e Miguel Aguilera and Iñigo R. Arandia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e20   ROBOTIC LIFE BEYOND EARTH 259\u003cbr\u003e Olaf Witkowski\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e AFTERWORD: “THE AUTHOR OF THE ROBOTS DEFENDS HIMSELF” 265\u003cbr\u003e Karel Čapek\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCONTRIBUTORS 269\u003cbr\u003e ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 275\u003cbr\u003e NOTES 277\u003cbr\u003e INDEX 289\u003ci\u003e“R.U.R.\u003c\/i\u003e 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.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eScience\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“[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.”\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e— \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Makes for fascinating reading.”\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eIEEE Spectrum\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A must-read for anyone interested in ALife.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eIrish Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“We are still reading [Čapek] today, and as \u003ci\u003eR.U.R and the Vision of Artificial Life\u003c\/i\u003e shows, finding new significance in everything that emerged from minds such as . . . Čapek’s.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOrwell Society\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“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.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBritish Journal for the History of Science\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Čapek’s far-seeing tragicomic satire blurs the lines between the human and the biomechanical.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eArts Fuse\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“[A] stimulating volume . . . Štěpán S. Šimek gives us a bracing new translation.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eIssues in Science and Technology\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eR.U.R.\u003c\/i\u003e is of course superb, the new translation and the translator’s note by Štěpán Šimek are helpful, and the essays are interesting and worth reading.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eTechnology \u0026amp; Culture\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“This indispensable volume offers a new English translation of Čapek's influential play, restoring its original structure, as the accompanying array of essays provide valuable context and interpretation. Capek's prescient meditation on human-android relations is timely and necessary.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e— Mark Kingwell, Professor of Philosophy, University of Toronto; author of \u003ci\u003eSingular Creatures\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“More relevant now than ever, this is Karel Čapek’s fascinating and visionary story about (artificial) life, science, soul, and love. The play is complemented with modern reflections on creation and humanity by artificial life scientists.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e— Steen Rasmussen, Professor in Physics, University of Southern Denmark; coeditor of \u003ci\u003eProtocells: Bridging Nonliving and Living Matter\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“\u003c\/b\u003eI was thrilled by this brilliant new translation of \u003ci\u003eR.U.R.\u003c\/i\u003e, the original robot uprising tale, that is as relevant today as it was a century ago. This is a must-have book for anyone interested in the history of technology and its impact on politics and society.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e— Annalee Newitz, author of \u003ci\u003eAutonomous\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Terraformers\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eKarel Čapek (1890–1938) was a Czech novelist, short story writer, playwright, and essayist best known for his dystopian works. He was the author of \u003ci\u003eWar with the Newts\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Makropulos Affair\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Absolute at Large\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe White Disease\u003c\/i\u003e, and many other notable works.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJitka Čejková is Associate Professor in the Chemical Robotics Laboratory at the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague. Her research focuses on how chemical engineers can contribute to artificial life research.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46299962507493,"sku":"NP9780262544504","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262544504.jpg?v=1767735319","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/rur-and-the-vision-of-artificial-life-isbn-9780262544504","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}