Yesterday I read a couple of disturbing posts about the recent arrest of a young Air National Guardsman for leaking highly classified information. The posts suggest that the leaker was seeking to impress online friends, and ask how do we give people more purpose in life than gaining a dopamine rush from seeing 'Likes' online?
I recently published a futuristic fiction novel that wrestles with this very question. In a not-distant USA, AIs make most of the decisions and robots do all the work. Everyone's got everything they need--except a purpose.
The book is about the people seeking that purpose, and how that quest comes to be viewed as a threat to social stability by the government of that time.
It's currently on sale for 99 cents as an ebook on Amazon, and here's the link:
https://www.amazon.com/Pause-Perpetual-Rotation-Unused-Path-ebook/dp/B09DF5CM3P