Reading Westworld – Edited Collection Coined in the early twentieth century, the term ‘robot’ conjures up images of man-made machines, artificial bodies, A.I.s and more recently, cyborgs. From Philip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968) to Spike Jonze’s Her (2013), every narrative of artificial life shares common themes – they are stories of identity, desire, rebellion and protest.