In 1966, Johnny Carson hosted an unusual guest. The guest played golf, conducted an orchestra, and proved capable of running a beer commercial by opening a can and pouring the beer into a cold glass. At the end of the show, the guest even made Carson a drink and lit his cigarette. The guest was UNIMATE—the first industrial robot invented by George Devol and licensed by Joseph Engelberger, who hoped to make a buck by selling the machine to manufacturers. The Johnny Carson show was a marketing stunt, meant to convince potential customers that industrial robots were worth the investment.
The robot’s performance left the audience stunned. A robot engaged in such human activities as leisure, music, and hospitality? It sounded like something taken out of the I, Robot series by Isaac Asimov, which has been ever gaining in popularity since the original publication in 1950. Or, was it more like Rosie the Robot in the animated series The Jetsons, which began airing in 1962? But this was neither fiction nor animation; it was real. Asimov’s scenarios now seemed like a prediction: the fiction became a reality.
