Will AI Destroy Our Purpose?

Will AI Destroy Our Purpose?

From Practical Stoicism by Tanner Campbell

March 24, 2026 · 13 min · Season 1 · Episode 13

About this episode

The episode explores the impact of AI on human work and the implications for our sense of purpose.

My Stoic Journaling Program is now 25% OFF with code "BREKKIE". Sign up at https://stoicjournaling.com. -- In this episode, I explore a growing concern: will AI eliminate human work, and if it does, what happens to our sense of purpose? I start by acknowledging the reality in front of us. AI is rapidly improving across creative and technical domains. Tasks that once required human skill are now being automated or reduced to minimal input. This is not speculation. It is already happening. Many forms of labour and many learnable skills are being replaced or compressed by technology. From there, I push the question further. If this trend continues, we may face a future where traditional employment becomes rare or unnecessary. That raises a deeper issue. If our culture has been built around work as the primary source of meaning, what happens when that work disappears? To answer this, I turn to Seneca and his writing on leisure. For the Stoics, leisure is not idleness. It is not the absence of work. It is the presence of directed attention toward what matters: self-examination, philosophical development, and contributing to others through wisdom and character. The problem is not that…

People in this episode

Host: Tanner Campbell

Topics covered

  • AI
  • purpose
  • employment
  • Stoicism
  • leisure
  • self-examination

Keywords

  • AI
  • purpose
  • employment
  • Stoicism
  • leisure
  • self-improvement
  • human work

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