Purpose, Meaning, and the AI Disruption |
As artificial intelligence threatens to displace vast numbers of jobs, most public discussion centers on economic remedies: retraining programs, universal basic income, or reduced workweeks. These responses address material survival, but they overlook a deeper vulnerability. Beneath the economic disruption lies a coming crisis of meaning that modern societies are poorly prepared to face.
Purpose and meaning are often treated as interchangeable, but they are not the same. Meaning refers to the sense of significance people experience in their activities, relationships, and commitments. Purpose is an organizing commitment grounded in what human life is for, giving a life direction across time. It determines what claims priority, what justifies effort, and what remains binding when rewards fade.
Modern societies have quietly outsourced meaning to work. Jobs do not give human........