Economic turmoil in the late 21st century caused the vast majority of people to be [[unemployed]]. You are one of the lucky 3987 people who have jobs. You are an [[asteroid miner]].
Some people thought it would be the [[NRA]] or the fallout from [[global warming]] that would bring about the end of society, but it turned out that it was the relentless automation of jobs.
Nowadays, people sit on their couches and entertain themselves via vr headsets. The needs of everyone are taken care of equally. You can order a finite number of calories automatically via your [[virtual reality]] headset.
[[Gun nuts|unemployed]].
A big deal for a while, it turned into less of a thing after people stopped commuting to work. Virtual reality meant people could work from home. Eventually, everyone was working from home. For a while, the only jobs were [[asteroid miner]], [[pizza delivery]], and [[VR support technicians]].
It turns out that the power harvested from [[space juice]] allowed humanity to have infinite amounts of clean energy. The impact on the global economy was instant and devastating. In order to prevent riots from destroying civilization, Facebook (needing to do something to alleviate the pressure of billions of unemployed people), gave away VR consoles for free.
You need to find 30 ounces of [[space juice]] per year in order to meet your quota. If you do not meet your quota, you will join the ranks of the [[unemployed]].
You are in deep space. Countless miles separate you from the [[nearest asteroid]].
Nicknamed "Space Juice", Pikachurin was originally found by accident during a Mars mission gone wrong in 2148. Pikachurin is a yellow, solid material that made a vaguely threatening humming noise. In it's liquid form, the amount of power harvested from Pikachurin put nuclear reactors to shame and eventually the reactors were all closed.
The only known way to get Pikachurin is to harvest it from asteroids. Being an [[asteroid miner]] is the only job left.
This job was popular until the invention of teleportation devices, which had the unfortunate side effect of killing anything that teleported. Something already dead was just fine though, and pizza delivery jobs became a [[thing of the past|unemployed]]
Artificial intelligence and self-healing mechanisms eventually ended this job. As the need declined, the jobs [[went away|unemployed]]
Roughly 30 thousand miles away, it'll take roughly 3 weeks for you to reach the asteroid. You set your course in that direction. Long ago you have given up on using your virtual reality console, as the server lag approached a 90 day ping time. So you sit and [[wait]] to reach your goal.
Lately you have been thinking about the [[vastness of space]] and the immense loneliness you encounter. There is little to do except [[read your instruction manual]].
There are only so many ways in which you can express your [[ennui]]. You could enter cold storage, but you just woke up and it doesn't seem like you should do that again so soon.
Failure to read and follow the directions in this instruction manual will result in [[termination|unemployed]].
Is it really ennui? It is a certain amount of world-weariness, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily ennui. That seems overly pretentious. We're talking [[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]] levels of pretentiousness. It might be [[Weltschmerz]].
Weltschmerz, German for “world pain,” was also coined during the Romantic Era and is in many ways the German version of ennui. It describes a world weariness felt from a perceived mismatch between the ideal image of how the world should be with how it really is. In German philosophy it was distinguished from pessimism, the idea that there is more bad than good in the world, because while pessimism was the logical conclusion of cool, rational philosophical pondering, weltschmerz was an emotional response. Though weltschmerz and ennui are pretty close synonyms, ennui foregrounds the listlessness brought on by world weariness (it can also be a term for more simple boredom), and weltschmerz foregrounds the pain or sadness. There is perhaps a greater sense of yearning in weltschmerz
Double-click this passage to edit it.