What/Who is Alquist?

The name Alquist goes back to founder Zachary Mannheimer's theater background. Alquist is a character in the 1920 satirical play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) by the Czech playwright Karel Čapek. R.U.R. was the first piece of literature to coin the term "Robot".

In the play, "robots" are invented to speed up Rossum's manufacturing facility. Over time the robots take on human emotion and revolt over their conditions, leading to an epic battle of robot vs. human. Alquist, the main engineer, is the only character in the story who believes that humans and robots can co-exist peacefully. He is spared by the robots and charged with forging ahead a new robot/human peace.