Astro, Amazon’s robot

The year is 1989 and Filla’s father is sitting in the living room enjoying his favorite TV Show, the A-Team.

“Filla! Please bring me a soda!” Filla’s father call from the living room. Filla is in the kitchen, busy playing on the floor with his small tin cars while his mother is baking up a storm. He has no problem getting up from the floor and doing what his father called for.

Filla walks over to the beige-colored fridge which stands in the far-end corner of the kitchen. He grabs hold of the handle and pulls it towards him. The fridge door opens up and on the middle shelf, the sodas stand neatly in three rows. His mother is a very organized and clean lady. A prestige housewife.

Filla takes a Cream Soda from the shelf, closes the door of the fridge, and walks to his dad in the living room. His dad’s eyes are fixed on the television set but as soon as Filla entered the room, his dad’s eyes were drawn to him.

“Thanks my son,” he says. “Want to watch the rest of the episode with me?” he invites Filla.

Fast forward to 2021.

Nicky is the head of sales in Mastromany Investments. His workweek consists of long hours, 6 days a week, which means there’s no time for socializing. When he gets home, his wife and kids are his number one priority because of how little time he has with them due to the long hours he works.

Nicky had a long day at the office. His body is tired, and his eyes are burning from staring at his computer screen all day long. Patricia, his seven-year-old daughter, is sitting in his arms on the couch. They are watching Barney, the friendly dinosaur. Although not the best action movie out there, Nicky endures the 30-minute episode of a purple dinosaur because of his daughter.

Nicky feels a dry sensation in his throat. He’s not in the mood to get up from the couch to get himself a soda from the fridge. He’s kind of lazy if he has to admit. He remembers Astro.

“Astro!” he calls out.

A buzzing sound is heard in a distance and it becomes louder and louder as it approaches. A small robot with wheels appeared from the kitchen in the living room. Astro is the home robot and has responded to Nicky’s call.

“Astro, please bring me a soda from the kitchen,” Nicky instructs the robot.

The small robot turns around, heads on over to the kitchen, and a few minutes later, reappears in the living room with a soda in his back pocket. He rolls on over to in front of Nicky’s feet, turns around, and reverses towards Nicky’s feet again.

Nicky takes the soda from Astro’s round cup holder on the back of the small robot on wheels. “Thanks, Astro,” Nicky says.

With a robot like Astro, I can see how it can be useful for people who have elderly parents at home. These robots can be a surveillance system for your home security through Ring’s products but also surveillance on checking up on your elderly parents while you are at work. But to have a robot to tend to your needs when you are not disabled or sick, in my opinion, that’s laziness or being spoiled. I am ashamed to admit it but I too am someone who is lazy and asking someone else to bring me some water or snack, is something that stems from laziness.

If you are someone who can afford a small robot in your home one day, then great but is it a necessity? Not if it to bring you a soda when you are able to do so yourself.