Robots: are they really slaves?

Robot comes from Czech "robotnik " which means slave and "robota" meaning "serf labor" Traditionally the "robota" was the work period a serf had to give for his lord (typically 6 months of the year).

The word "robot" was introduced in its actual meaning by the Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), published in 1920. The play begins in a factory that makes artificial people called robots (Androids) who can think for themselves and seem happy to serve. By extension, the word got used to refer to any mechanical or virtual artificial agent, guided by a computer program.