#rur — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #rur, aggregated by home.social.
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“The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that man may become robots.”*…
Images of Rastus Robot in an issue of Radio-Craft magazine from 1931… which might be the same thing?
As more and more folks are fearing obsolescence (if not, indeed, subjugation) by emerging technology, Matthew Wills reminds us that this fear– especially as embodied in androids– has a long (and dark) history here in the U.S…
Our word “robot” comes from Karel Čapek’s 1921 play R.U.R. In it, historian of robots Dustin A. Abnet explains, Čapek repurposed the Czech word for “drudgery” or “servitude” to refer to the artificial workers produced by the play’s Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti (Rossum’s Universal Robots) company. [See also here.] Created from synthetic organic material, and thus more android than mechanical, these worker-roboti ultimately overthrow their human masters.
The play was a sensation in Europe, and then a year later, in America, though something was lost in translation. Čapek used robots to criticize soulless Fordism—the “standardization and regimentation” of American capitalism—and hence the US’s political and cultural power in Europe and around the world. (Other Europeans would conceive of the robot in the same way, notably director Fritz Lang and screenwriter Thea von Harbou in the 1927 German film Metropolis.)
But a funny thing happened to these robotic symbols of American capitalism by the mid-twentieth century. They were Americanized by American capitalism. Americans, as Abnet notes, “turned a figure that initially rebelled against the dehumanizing effects of Fordism into a tamed electro-mechanical slave holding aloft a global empire of consumerism.”
Nowhere was this more literal than in the Westinghouse Electric Company’s “simple remotely controlled mechanical men and women” used to advertise the company’s products from 1927 to 1940. “Technology did not have to run amok, Westinghouse’s robots suggested; it could instead become a tamed slave that empowered each individual consumer to become his or her own master.” In the American context, where the language of master and slave was rooted in racism, Westinghouse “connected robots to romanticized white myths about slavery.”
“Americans had always racialized robot-like creations,” continues Abnet, citing the first American automaton (a caricature of a Native American) and the “grotesque minstrel-like caricatures of Black and Asian bodies” that made up automatons in the late nineteenth century.
Westinghouse’s creations, named Herbert Televox, Karina Van Televox, Telelux, Rastus, Willie Vocalite, and Elektro, were promoted as docile domestic workers. Abnet quotes the New York Times’ science and technology editor extolling the benefits of the first of these “mechanical slaves” in 1927: “it obeys without the usual human arguing, impudence or procrastination.”
Rastus, Westinghouse’s Great Depression-era robot, was the most overtly racialized of these corporate robot slaves. Rastus was modeled on a minstrel show character: “black rubber ‘skin,’ overalls, a white shirt, and a pail hat.” In addition, “the robot had a ‘rich, baritone voice’ that would have been read as unmistakably black.” While “all of Westinghouse’s other robots told jokes…Rastus and its blackness were themselves the joke.”
In 1930, Westinghouse’s President explicitly expressed the prevailing white romanticism of slavery. In the company’s Electric Journal, he argued that without the exploitation of the “muscles of others,” there could be “no art, literature, science, leisure, or comfort for anyone.” Rastus’s “tamed black body,” stresses Abnet, “underscored the larger rhetoric of slavery that shaped the fantasy the company offered white consumers.”
“Ultimately, Westinghouse’s robots were not just about more efficiently accomplishing work or ensuring greater leisure time; they were a symbol that deployed racialized slavery in ways that could reassure white Americans of their own freedom, their own mastery over both technology and the bodies of others.”
Čapek’s robots had successfully rebelled, killing all but one human. In America, that couldn’t happen, at least according to the corporations selling the robot idea. But fear of a robot rebellion, like the fear of slave rebellion before the Civil War, remained. Abnet notes that the “most common robot story in American science fiction during the 1920s and 1930s told a story of white men, using their cunning, strength, and willpower to restore their authority over the robots who should be their slaves.” Movies, especially science fiction serials, often told the same story.
A century after R.U.R. and forty years after The Terminator, the uneasiness engendered by robots (and their droid, cyborg, replicant, and AI cousins) persists, reflecting longstanding concerns about labor, autonomy, and power…
Early automatons in the US evolved from symbols of revolt into racialized figures tied to labor and the legacy of slavery: “How America Racialized the Robot,” from @jstordaily.bsky.social.
* Erich Fromm, The Sane Society
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As we move on, we might recall that it was on this date in 1967 that Aretha Franklin’s up-tempo cover of Otis Redding’s “Respect” enter the Billboard Hot 100. It rose steadily over the next several weeks, hitting #1 in June, where it stayed for two weeks and won Franklin two Grammy Awards at the 1968 ceremony, including the first of eight consecutive Grammys for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. An R&B classic, it has also become a protest anthem, thanks to its connections to both the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the second-wave feminist movement of the 1970s.
https://youtu.be/v4f22xl6Bvg?si=yn-pPhxjVoWgsA8k
#ArethaFranklin #automation #culture #history #KarelCapek #KarelČapek #OtisRedding #politics #prejudice #racism #Respect #robots #RUR #slavery #Technology #Terminator #Westinghouse -
„Ty, Josef,“ začal autor, „já bych měl myšlenku na hru.“
„Jakou,“ bručel malíř (opravdu bručel, neboť držel přitom v ústech štětec).
Autor mu to řekl tak stručně, jak to šlo.
„Tak to napiš,“ děl malíř, aniž vyndal štětec z úst a přestal natírat plátno. Bylo to až urážlivě lhostejné.
„Ale já nevím,“ řekl autor, „jak mám ty umělé dělníky nazvat. Řekl bych jim laboři, ale připadá mně to nějak papírové.“
„Tak jim řekni roboti,“ mumlal malíř se štětcem v ústech a maloval dál.Lidové noviny, 24.12.1933
#KarelCapek #Capek #JosefCapek #RUR #robot #RossumsUniversalRobots
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#Weather #rur #open-meteo
Ребята из РФ (@[email protected], @[email protected])
У меня к вам такой вопрос: У васapi.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast<прочие-символы>работает без обхода? Ибо у меня он сегодня не хочет на запрете и без него работать. Только под VPN'ом и прочими буквами/аббривеатурами...
100% packet loss, таймаут и прочие гадости. Но при этом
Но при этом проверка сайта на бан через РКН сайты говорят об обратном...
Может из-за того, что api лежит у провайдера "Хецнер"?
Либо какой-то локальный глюк... Ибо это Ооооочень странно. -
Voor de minder bejaarden onder ons, waarvan ik me eigenlijk afvraag of die wel op dit medium zitten: #RUR, gepresenteerd door de nu overleden #JanLenferink, was een gezapige, vrij oppervlakkige talkshow met soms opzienbarende gasten:
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Happy Robot Day!
Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti) premiered in a theater in Hradec Králové 1/2/1921, introducing the trope of artificial humans called "robots".
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@[email protected] @[email protected] #RU #RUR #Russian #Ёлка #новый_год #нг #новыйгод2026
Ну чтож, дорогой федиверс...
Этот год был непростым, он был наполнен как и ХИХИ, так и ХАХА. Было много как ОХОХО, так и ПХАПХАХП, как ЕХЕХЕХ, так и ИХИХХИ. Но мы смогли. Все мы! Всем РУ (и не только) федивёрсом мы смогли осилить 2025 год.
Поздравляю вас всех с НОВОЙ, ДВЕ ТЫСЯЧИ ДВАДЦАТЬ ШЕСТОЙ ГОДОЙ! УРА!
Также, я благодарю всех ребят, кто участвовал в мини-конкурсе по наряжанию ёлки, а именно:
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
Ну и @[email protected], который чё-то пока не захотел.
Благодарю всех вас и всех тех, кто продвигал тот пост, чтобы больше федивёрцев увидело данное мероприятие.
Ещё раз поздравляю с новой годой! -
@[email protected] @mastodon.ml @[email protected] #RU #RUR #Russian #Ёлка #новый_год #нг #новыйгод2026
:jahy_padoru: НАРЯДИ ЁЛКУ :jahy_padoru: :jahy_padoru: Издание 2026 :jahy_padoru:
Ну что ж, дорогая федерация.
Скоро новый год, мандарины, ольвье, шампанское, новый год...
А ёлку вы нарядили!? :jahy_hmm:
Основной символ нового года, и без него? Как бы не так!
Я запускаю мини-ивент под названием...
Условия теже, что и в прошлом году:
1) С каждого по ОДНОЙ игрушке (Дабы дать место другим участникам) (игрушки можно взять здесь. thx @[email protected])
2) (желательно) публиковать ёлки в одной "ветке". (Комментируя предыдущую ёлку)
3) Разрешена ЛЮБАЯ игрушка (не только классический шарик, но и жабка, мемы и прочее, что разрешено в этом мире / ЩПК / руфеди). А также можно добавлять что-угодно за ёлкой (Людей, животных и прочее, что разрешено в мире / ЩПК/ феди)
4) Звезда в самом КОНЦЕ (Звезда будет являться заключительным этапом наряжения ёлки)
А вот вам и ёлочка!
(И не бейте позязя за массовый пинг, я несу добро и позитив :senko_happy::senko_happy::senko_happy:) -
#rur
PADORU PADORU :jahy_padoru: :jahy_padoru: :jahy_padoru: -
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#rur
Ща подыму мини-ивентик (как в прошлом году), но поранбше.
Чтоб времени хватило. -
How many runways can you see for Rurutu airport (French Polynesia) ? : The answer is on https://www.bigorre.org/aero/meteo/ntar/en #rurutuairport #airport #frenchpolynesia #ntar #rur #aviation #avgeek vl
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« Il y a des fleurs partout pour qui veut bien les voir »
Inspirée par cette citation de Matisse, cette pièce secrète a été réalisée sur le site de @rurgraffiti à @ville_montreuil . Apres 4 années en Eure-et-Loir à Nogent-le-Rotrou , le festival RUR se délocalise les 14 et 15 juin prochain à Montreuil, organisé par @nicolascaudmont et @kholab_events à @district.trainingzone
#art #rur #montreuil #panonerpan #fleurs #matisse #streetart #urbanart #sprayart #flowersarehiphop
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⚙️ Star Trek The Next Generation, Battlestar Galactica, The Expanse, Doctor Who, The X-Files, etc. How much we love sci-fi series! I don't know if we would have enjoyed them as much if the BBC hadn't gotten involved about 83 years ago, when on February 11, 1938, it broadcast the first sci-fi film in history on TV (more specifically, the first sci-fi program-film-whatever made specifically for TV).
⚙️ Initially, I wanted to call it a series, but it was simply a 35-minute adaptation of a part of the play "R.U.R." by the Czech writer Karel Čapek. "R.U.R." stands for "Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti (Rossum's Universal Robots)" and was first staged in 1921. It's about humans who create robots (more closely related to the idea of "androids," "replicants" from Blade Runner, or "cylons" from Battlestar Galactica) that eventually rebel against their creators.
⚙️ The most important thing is that in "R.U.R." the term "robot" was used for the first time.
📸 Photo: a sequence from the BBC adaptation of the play "R.U.R." for the small screen (1938)
#History #Culture #TV #SciFi #Robots #Android #RUR #Czech #czechrepublic #europe #KarelCapek
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Mallory Jansen & Anthony LaPaglia Join Alex Proyas’ Sci-Fi Satire Feature ‘R.U.R.’
#News #AlexProyas #AnthonyLaPaglia #MalloryJansen #RURhttps://deadline.com/2024/08/mallory-jansen-anthony-lapaglia-alex-proyas-r-u-r-1236033129/
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Mallory Jansen & Anthony LaPaglia Join Alex Proyas’ Sci-Fi Satire Feature ‘R.U.R.’
#News #AlexProyas #AnthonyLaPaglia #MalloryJansen #RURhttps://deadline.com/2024/08/mallory-jansen-anthony-lapaglia-alex-proyas-r-u-r-1236033129/
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Mallory Jansen & Anthony LaPaglia Join Alex Proyas’ Sci-Fi Satire Feature ‘R.U.R.’
#News #AlexProyas #AnthonyLaPaglia #MalloryJansen #RURhttps://deadline.com/2024/08/mallory-jansen-anthony-lapaglia-alex-proyas-r-u-r-1236033129/
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Mallory Jansen & Anthony LaPaglia Join Alex Proyas’ Sci-Fi Satire Feature ‘R.U.R.’
#News #AlexProyas #AnthonyLaPaglia #MalloryJansen #RURhttps://deadline.com/2024/08/mallory-jansen-anthony-lapaglia-alex-proyas-r-u-r-1236033129/
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Der Lazarus Strohmanus - eine Strohpuppe - wird in Jülich alljährlich am Veilchendienstag durch die Stadt getragen und zum Ende des Karnevals in der Rur beerdigt.
Der Lazarus Strohmanus - eine Strohpuppe - wird in Jülich alljährlich am Veilchendienstag durch die Stadt getragen. Das ist seit etwa 300 Jahren Brauch zum Ende der Session. Nach Einbruch der Dunkelheit landet Lazurus schließlich in der Rur.#Jülich #Karneval #LazarusStrohmanus #Tradition #Strohpuppe #Session #Rur #Rurbrücke #Tuch #DavidNingelgen #HistorischeGesellschaft #StudioAachen #14022024
Karnevalsausklang in Jülich mit Lazarus Strohmanus -
Großartiger Abend im Theater im Delphi. Die Roboter Oper R.U.R. – Rossum’s Universal Robots wurde genial vom Ensemble Gamut Inc in Szene gesetzt. Man fühlte sich zurück versetzt in die 1920er Jahre. Ich stelle mir vor, dass man Neues damals so erlebt haben muss. Stroboskopierende Scheiben versetzten mich in einen fast hypnotischen Zustand. Und die Musik - atemberaubend. #GinaMayWalter (#Sopran) + #GeorgGBochow (#Countertenor) - toll!
#Roboter #Berlin #TheaterImDelphi #Stroboskop #RUR
