Rururururururur

The back cover of the 2002 quiz book edition of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? features a sample question: What is the language of origin for the word “robot”? The answer is: Czech. More precisely, the word comes from the pen of one of the most renowned Czech writers, Karel Čapek, that is, from his 1921 play R.U.R. – Rossum’s Universal Robots. The world owes a lot to Čapek’s literary heritage, and the omnipresence of the 21st century technology shows clearly that we are still nurturing his vision of a society without care… or responsibility. At this point of no return, as he explores our need for and fear of technology, Čapek creates a world which reflects our own a hundred years later, when we are facing an environmental crisis. What are we to make of Čapek’s robots today? Inspired by his play, we have created an immersive technology-based show for young audiences and tried to tackle the issue of environmental responsibility. What if the robots are part of the solution to this crisis? What if they are also part of the problem? If that is the case, the million dollar question is: what would the world look like without people? Or rather, can we imagine such a world?