There is nothing particularly remarkable about Czech/Slavonic word "robota" (serfdom) being mentioned in English as a technical term for the system in force in

There is nothing particularly remarkable about Czech/Slavonic word "robota" (serfdom) being mentioned in English as a technical term for the system in force in Austria (and the Czech lands), nine years before it was abolished. In some countries it continued even longer. Undoubtedly Čapek had chosen that word for a good reason. However, to make up some kind of thesis that this mention of serfdom in 1839 was therefore the first appearance of "Robot" in English is just one convolution too far. One could argue more logically, that the first appearance of "Robot" was in old Slavonic around 700 AD or earlier. Perhaps a few thousand years earlier in its Sanskrit form. Though, surely, that is not the point here. The point is that it was Čapek in 1921 who first applied it in the context of some kind of "soulless servant" and thus created its modern usage.