{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "It\u2019s counterintuitive, but the word \u201candroid\u201d is actually older than the word \u201crobot.\u201d The first use of \u201crobot\u201d was in a...", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/682090734744109056/", "html": "

vintagegeekculture:

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It\u2019s counterintuitive, but the word \u201candroid\u201d is actually older than the word \u201crobot.\u201d The first use of \u201crobot\u201d was in a Communist Czech play in 1921, but \u201candroid\u201d is far older, and the term came into regular use\u00a0in the 1770s to refer to the creations of Jacquet-Droz.

Jacquet-Droz was a genius clock and watchmaker who created unusual novelty devices that mimicked human behavior. As they tended to look like dolls, the term\u00a0\u201candroid\u201d was used to refer to them. Many of his doll-like androids still exist, but not all. An example of one of his remaining ones is the Writer, who could actually use a quill pen to write up to 40 words on a tiny piece of paper.\u00a0

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