We won 't get a healthier planet with lifestyle programmes and new technologies if we don 't understand the psychological mechanisms behind overconsumption. Today there is food and Netflix, tomorrow is uncertain. Politicians let companies invest in smart technology, smart houses, robotics, AI, so that we can even more easily compensate for our human shortages. A technocratic (robotized) world evokes a lack of recognition and an experience of meaninglessness. Meaninglessness increases insecurity and thus causes more overconsumption, which in turn calls for new control technologies. This is a vicious circle, which ultimately threatens our very survival.