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"I would say 75% of the economy is now being run by ex-science-fiction fans."
- Greg Bear
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| Robotess | ||
| A female robot. |
As far as I know, this is the first use of this uncommon word, a female robot.
| Alquist. (Awakes) "Laughter? Laughter, human beings." (Getting up) "Who has returned? Who are you?"
Primus. "The Robot Primus." Alquist. (To Helena) "What? A Robot? Who are you?" Helena. "The Robotess Helena." (Shies away L.) Alquist. "What? You are timid, shy? (Starts to touch her) Let me see you, Robotess." Primus. Sir, do not frighten her. (Steps forward.) |
| Technovelgy from R.U.R.,
by Karel Capek. Published by Not Available in 1920 Additional resources -
|
Today, many writers use gynoid to describe a feminine gendered robot; see the entry for gynoid from Divine Endurance (1984) by Gwyneth Jones.
Fans of early cinema might also remember the female robot from Fritz Lang's 1927 classic Metropolis.
(Female robot from Fritz Lang's Metropolis)
The term fembot is also used; this term first appeared in 1976 in The Bionic Woman, an American television series.
Compare to the manufactured wife from A Wife Manufactured to Order (1895) by Alice W. Fuller, the psychophonic nurse from The Psychophonic Nurse (1928) by David H. Keller, the teleoperated robot surrogate from The Robot and the Lady (1938) by Manly Wade Wellman, the mechanical bride from The Mechanical Bride (1954) by Fritz Leiber, the maid-robot from The Midas Plague (1954) by Frederik Pohl and the Nanny from Nanny (1955) by Philip K. Dick.
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'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
Now that's power walking that Hugo Gernsback would have approved.
'It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct...'
'...he rewired the delivery robot so that it would serve him midnight snacks.'
'On went the electric-yacht faster and still faster.'
'...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.'
'...he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it.'
