Back to the list of technologies
- "Robotics has been around forever, and it's been the next big thing forever, and it is so exciting and compelling that it's easy to get carried away."
– Colin Angle
- "I'll be back."
– Unknown
Robotics is an Information Era technology in Civilization VI. It can be hurried by researching the Globalization civic.
Strategy[]
The ultimate marriage of technological advancement and laziness, robots will soon take over the world...figuratively speaking (we hope). Meanwhile, those that exist today are able to relieve humans from tedious jobs, such as husbanding cattle and doing work on other planets. This automation increases the 
Production output of Pastures and allows the Launch Mars Habitation project to be undertaken in vanilla Civilization VI and Rise and Fall, or increases the 
Food output of Pastures in Gathering Storm.
In Gathering Storm, discovering Robotics triggers the 
Inspiration for Optimization Imperative and unlocks the mighty Giant Death Robot, the deadliest military unit for domination.
Civilopedia entry[]
In 1942 AD, the science fiction author Isaac Asimov proposed three “laws of robotics.” In 1948 the American mathematician Norbert Wiener formulated the “principles of cybernetics” as the basis for practical robotics. And in 1961 the first programmable robot – “Unimate” – was constructed to lift and stack hot pieces of metal from a die casting machine.
Automata – self-operating machines – have been around since described in the third-century BC Chinese text 'Liezi' attributed to the philosopher Lie Yukou. In 1495 AD, no less a genius than Leonardo da Vinci offered schematics for a mechanical knight, a proto-robot. The French artist and tinkerer Jacques de Vaucanson built a mechanical duck that was able to eat, flap its wings, and excrete afterward – the “Digesting Duck” in 1738; more significantly, he also built a completely automated loom, perhaps the first commercially viable “automaton.” So “robots” (so-named by Czech Karel Capek in his play R.U.R.) were around long before ABB Robot Group installed the world's first microcomputer controlled industrial robot in Sweden in 1974.
But, of course, it is humanoid robots – with a torso, head with facial features of some sort, two or more arms, bipedal locomotion – that get everyone both excited and concerned. The darlings of sci-fi writers and Hollywood studios, such robots are only starting to be realized. In 1973, Wabot-1 was built, able to walk, communicate in Japanese, and measure distance to objects with artificial eyes and ears. (Almost as entertaining as the Digesting Duck, apparently.) Soon enough, just about every year a new robot was delighting the world. In 2005, Wakamaru made its first appearance, a Japanese-built domestic robot intended to provide care and companionship for the elderly and disabled.
Of course, robots need not be humanoid in form. In fact, the human form is an inefficient design, and so there are a plethora of possibilities, all being explored by engineers and manufacturers for various tasks – wheeled robots, spherical-orb robots, tracked robots, etc. – with all sorts of grapplers and manipulators rather than hands. The possibilities are nearly endless. Or as Terry Pratchett asked, “I wonder what makes us build inefficiently-shaped human robots instead of nice streamlined machines?”
Trivia[]
- The unattributed quote is from The Terminator. It has become a famous catchphrase of the titular T800 Cyberdyne Systems model 101-Terminator, an unstoppable combat robot.
- This is the only quote of any kind in the game that is not attributed to anyone.
See also[]
- Robotics in other games
| Civilization VI Science Victory steps [edit] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| All game versions | |||
|
1. Launch a satellite
| ||
|
2. Land a human on the Moon
| ||
| Vanilla Civilization VI and Rise and Fall | Gathering Storm | ||
|
3. Establish a Martian Colony
|
|
3. Establish a Martian Colony
|
|
4. Launch an Exoplanet Expedition
| ||
|
5. Help the Exoplanet Expedition travel 50 light years
| ||
