Play· 1921· Science Fiction
by Karel Čapek
R.U.R.: 1 recorded work traces back to it, and it draws on 1 recorded source.
Works that record this one as a source, with the evidence a contributor gave.
Čapek's play gave the world the word robot and the story of robots destroying their makers. Asimov wrote his robot stories against that story, which he called the Frankenstein complex, and designed the Three Laws so the revolt could not happen. He called R.U.R. a bad play made immortal by one word.
The works this one is recorded as drawing on.
Lineage rather than acknowledgement. Rossum's factory is Victor Frankenstein's laboratory made industrial: artificial life made by a man who plays God, which turns on humanity. Critics have read the play through Frankenstein since its premiere, but Čapek did not name it as a source.