Although Mass Production offered many benefits to manufacturers, its dependence on a human work force made it vulnerable to organized disruptions such as strikes and government regulation, as well as personal problems such as illness, injury, inefficiency, and theft. Not so with Robots. Programmed mechanical workers, robots were named after the mechanical beings in Czech writer Karel Capek's 1921 play R.U.R. In the play, the robots rise up and fight their masters, but in reality, robots proved not only innocuous but wonderfully efficient and uncomplaining. Mass Production skyrocketed, boosting the world economy.