The problem with going through life one day at a time, each in order, was that Michael had no past pleasures to enjoy, nor any hope for the future.

Gurus might tell you that this is the only way to live – ‘in the moment’ – but he found it isolating and shallow. He found no depth to his life.

It was without worry and without regret, of course, but it was without the magical moments of memories.

It provided no possibilities that his world could improve and that there might, sometime, somewhere out there, be other humankind left.