Final answer:
The name of Karel Čapek's play is R.U.R., which introduced the word 'robot' to the lexicon. Robots have since become a reality and a significant part of research and popular culture, ranging in form and prompting discussions about their rights and social impact.
Step-by-step explanation:
The 3-letter name of Karel Čapek's play from which we get the word “robot” is a. R.U.R., which stands for Rossum’s Universal Robots. Robots have evolved significantly since the concept was first introduced, from the dream of creating clever machines to the reality of having robots like autonomous vacuum cleaners. Popular culture has also embraced the idea of robots, portraying them in shapes and sizes ranging from humanoid to self-assembling cubes, as noted in Figure 19.18, and addressing the complexities of their existence and potential rights, as illustrated by characters like Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the Maschinenmensch in the classic film Metropolis.