Borrowing from Huizinga, I would say that human beings are most at home during play. During play, the contents of the (game)world make perfect sense. Every object has a meaning, and every action produces a completely sensible reaction. Life makes sense, even if defeat and death are the result.
When our robot overlords arrive, perhaps they will reshape all economic activity into a literal "game," where we succeed or fail based on the points we earn. If so, I think they will find that the money spent on pointless aspects of the game or poor players is more than compensated by the increased productivity, contentment, and docility of their workforce.