Have you read Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut? It looked at automation and the mass existential crisis brought on by the rise of the machines!

Frankl liked to ask people "so why don't you kill yourself?"... and in there, people found their meaning through their answer. We are so often told the myth that meaning is "out there", waiting to be found, neatly packaged - and usually conveniently aligned with what the economic market currently values. But searching for meaning "out there" is always going to leave us disappointed.

There is an emptiness, a void that most people feel. We have been told that this is the human condition. Many try to fill it with relationships, having children, a job, volunteering, endless travel or consumption. But as long as you remain disconnected from yourself, from the life force pulsing through you and the rest of life, you will feel that emptiness. Our society raises us in a state of profound disconnection from ourselves, each other, and nature - and the longing for deep connection, belonging and meaning comes out of that disconnection (I believe).