In May 2010, US scientists succeeded in creating the first self-replicating synthetic life. The advance has been hailed as a scientific landmark, but critics say there are dangers posed by synthetic organisms. In 1920, Karel Capek predicted this exact scenario in his prescient Rossum Universal Robots (R.U.R.) Predating Huxely's Brave New World by two decades, R.U.R. claims the same footing in history as the earliest masterpiece that depicts the decline of Homo Sapiens and their replacement by the Post Humans. Karel Capek was the most famous author in the Czech Republic in the first half of the 20th century. His work widely translated and still inspires story tellers and movie directors the world over. R.U.R inspired Spielberg' A.I., Will Smith' I Robot and Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator series, among others. "Capek's play is immortal for that one word it contributed, 'Robot', not only to English but, through English, to all the languages." Isaac Asimov
About the Author: Karel Capek was the most famous author in Czechoslovakia in the first half of the 20th century, and his works inspired the ill fated revolt against Communist rule 30 years later. His works are widely translated. Son of a doctor, Capek studied philosophy in Paris, Berlin, and Prague. Becoming a journalist, Karel was firmly entrenched between mutual hatreds for the Nazis and the Communists; promoting a free and democratic Czechoslovakia and supporting those political figures of like mind. Capek's first major success came as a playwright when he created the robot in his 1921 play R. U. R., (Rossum Universal Robots); intended as a satire against the Czech agrarian feudal system. Karel authored other less successful works but outstanding above them was the utopian type fantasy novel, War with the Newts, another political statement. When the Nazi overtook Europe, Capek was forced to surrender his dreams along with his spirit and, thereby, his life, when Czechoslovakia was abandoned by the Western nations in the pact made at Munich. He saw his world and time as lost, yet Capek would not leave the country or his beautiful Prague, fully realizing that the decision to stay meant his death. But rather than death coming at the hands of his enemies, it came from pneumonia...in his home, in his bed, with his wife nearby. Others would not be so lucky.