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ONE Tesla and the Teleautomaton: A Brief History of Automation This chapter begins with Nikola Tesla inventing and demonstrating the first robotic device, a radio-­controlled boat in Madison Square Garden in 1898. How Tesla came to this idea ­will begin the narrative on our need and desire to automate every­thing from factory work to warfare. I’ll profile early forms of automation and how robots came into the workforce in many forms. When Nikola Tesla in­ven­ted and demonstrated a wireless, robotic boat at the old Madison Square Garden in 1898, it begat entire industries in robotic manufacturing and, eventually, driverless vehicles. The tub-­shaped, radio-­controlled craft showed the world how devices could be controlled remotely and heralded the birth of what Tesla called “teleautomatons,” or robots, a word that ­ didn’t exist yet. Tesla, the ­ father of alternating current, radio, and wireless transmission of electricity, had done something remarkable. While his invention ­wasn’t even called a “robot,” it demonstrated how a remotely controlled machine could work. It would be de­cades before the potential of his machine could be recognized, of course, but it would eventually change the ­ future of ­ human labor.10­ A year ­ after his New York debut, Tesla brought his robotic boat to Chi- cago, where he demonstrated his device before hundreds in the legendary Auditorium Theatre, renowned for its perfect acoustics. This time, though, he was talking about a remote-­control torpedo. It took him a year to wea- ponize the technology that would change the world, although he abandoned