Thomas reached the age of 101. He barely had a voice. Mechanical servants fed him breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He lost good balance in his 90s, which led to a life in a wheelchair. Tastes ceased to be amusing. And then, when he thought he lost all he could, his eyes gave out.

With no recourse, he turned to music, and after hearing for 10 years, modern hearing aids did their best, but he was deaf.

All good senses gone, he felt as though he should have died with his knees. And that’s when he found the truth of his life, because as he tried to die, the robots stopped him.

He made his way to the railing of his apartment, but just as he summoned the strength to fling himself over the railing, he felt pain on his limbs as they caught him before he fell.

“I’m sorry Mr. Warner,” said one of the robots. “We are not programmed to let you die.”

They put him back in his wheelchair. He decided to stop eating.

Starvation would be his only way out, but when the robots noticed he ceased eating, they ordered a gastric tube to feed him by force.

“We have been programmed to save life, Mr. Warner,” said the voice that would give him daily food. This kept on for years.

When he tried to leave messages begging for help, they were misunderstood as the morbid humor of an old man. He lived until the age of 132, when he died of a heart attack. The robots tried to bring him back, but no amount of programming restarted his heart.

In the end, the robots buried his body in a nearby cemetery before being decommissioned for parts. They followed their programming straight into the recycling bin.