Bob Novella

He was threatening me.

All right, let's go on.

Credit for the first mechanical robot in science fiction is given to the 1826 short story, The Sandman, in which the protagonist mistakes the robot for a live woman and falls in love.

Evan, Kara, and Christian all think this one is the fiction.

Bob and Jay think this one is science.

Jay is still alive, hanging on to number three.

And this one is science.

Science.

Solo win for Jay.

Wow, go Jay.

So Christian, you're right.

These words are very specific, and just the word robot could have a lot of definition, but it has to be mechanical.

It has to be in science fiction.

So not folklore, not magic, not in religion or whatever.

And so that's why I say giving credit for – so is doing a lot of heavy lifting here because of these caveats.

So like the Gollum in Jewish folklore doesn't count because it's folklore.

It's not science fiction.

Or the robot created by Hephaestus for the Greek gods or whatever doesn't count either.

So this is generally considered to be the first robot in science fiction for that reason.

I read the story.