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seclusion
clownfood
packet pusherin the wallsRegistered User regular
packet pusherin the wallsRegistered User regular
Recently a thought popped into my head about a situation in which if I was offered a million dollars to spend a year in seclusion, would I be able to do it. (this is based on a story i read long ago and can't remember the name of).
I figured I could if I had a few necessities provided. Books, music, food/water, bathing area and a few things for exercise. Being single and known for just up and moving to various parts of the world on a whim, I figured this would be easy for me. But I pose this to the board, could you do this. Here is what you get in your room.
Room is comparable to a studio loft ~ 1300 square feet. and there are no windows.
you have a bathroom and a stove/kitchen area
There would be lights that you would control.
There would be NO clocks, you would have nothing to tell you what time it was.
Your food would provided via a room that would be designed like an airlock. no food will come to you prepared. Basically periodically you would recieve a couple bags of groceries needed to make healthy meals. but you could recieve some sweets and the such.
Your room would actually be outside of the US or your country of origin so your million dollars would come to you tax free (based off US rules and regs (I could be wrong about this))
After entering the room, you will not be able to request more books or more music. You stock the place beforehand and you are stuck with it.
Your personal bills would be looked after while you are in seclusion. This means student loans, phone bills, rent/morgage, etc etc
Your family is on its own.
You are to make no attempt at contacting people or trying to find any information on the outside world.
You do not have a TV. For your music, you have something akin to a iPod shuffle with extended space (no LCD with time on it)
the kicker is that the door to the outside world is unlocked. You can walk out at any time. This is a voluntary action and the moment you are discovered trying to make contact with the outside world, the deal is off, you are returned to your life and you get no money for the time you are in. This doesn't mean you are not free to try, but this is a risk you take. It is an all or nothing deal. This includes trying to talk or communicate with people or trying to obtain news or information about anything outside of your walls. The moment the door closes behind you the time starts.
Could you do it? It seems easy at first, but do you think your psyche could take the isolation? How bad do you think the inability to gage time would be on your isolation? What kind of problems do you think you would have trying to readjust if you succeeded?
I figured I could if I had a few necessities provided. Books, music, food/water, bathing area and a few things for exercise. Being single and known for just up and moving to various parts of the world on a whim, I figured this would be easy for me. But I pose this to the board, could you do this. Here is what you get in your room.
Room is comparable to a studio loft ~ 1300 square feet. and there are no windows.
you have a bathroom and a stove/kitchen area
There would be lights that you would control.
There would be NO clocks, you would have nothing to tell you what time it was.
Your food would provided via a room that would be designed like an airlock. no food will come to you prepared. Basically periodically you would recieve a couple bags of groceries needed to make healthy meals. but you could recieve some sweets and the such.
Your room would actually be outside of the US or your country of origin so your million dollars would come to you tax free (based off US rules and regs (I could be wrong about this))
After entering the room, you will not be able to request more books or more music. You stock the place beforehand and you are stuck with it.
Your personal bills would be looked after while you are in seclusion. This means student loans, phone bills, rent/morgage, etc etc
Your family is on its own.
You are to make no attempt at contacting people or trying to find any information on the outside world.
You do not have a TV. For your music, you have something akin to a iPod shuffle with extended space (no LCD with time on it)
the kicker is that the door to the outside world is unlocked. You can walk out at any time. This is a voluntary action and the moment you are discovered trying to make contact with the outside world, the deal is off, you are returned to your life and you get no money for the time you are in. This doesn't mean you are not free to try, but this is a risk you take. It is an all or nothing deal. This includes trying to talk or communicate with people or trying to obtain news or information about anything outside of your walls. The moment the door closes behind you the time starts.
Could you do it? It seems easy at first, but do you think your psyche could take the isolation? How bad do you think the inability to gage time would be on your isolation? What kind of problems do you think you would have trying to readjust if you succeeded?
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Totally not worth it.
Okay, you are given tools and manuals on how to fix plumbing. You are also supplied extra light bulbs. if your stove breaks....well you know, you should play a bit more carefully with your toys.
That is 20 years at my current salary. Contrary to popular belief, it is still a good bit of money for a single year. And it is tax free.
Tax free? Invest it at 5% interest rate you make 50,000 every year. 5% for that kind of money is a stupidly low rate of return. If the above money is managed correctly you could live a middle class lifestyle for yourself, forever.
Could I do it? I think I could though I'd expect to be very changed by the experience and I'm not certain it'd be in any kind of healthy way.
I'm not certain I'd choose to do it or not. I would find such an idea tempting though.
Medical supplies?
well stocked first aid kit and a panic button in case you fall and you can't get up. Try not to die. keep yourself clean and eat well. I will include an elipical trainer so you don't get bed sores and your legs don't suffer from atrophy.
A computer not connected to the internet (as per the rules) would be ideal, but if it has to be a typewriter/pencil-paper, it needs to be a lot.
It would probably be a typewriter with paper or a bunch of notebooks with a pen or pencil. The "no clock" part of this scenario, I believe makes it harder than anything else in the world. Not being able to gage where you are at in the term can make it feel so much longer.
I would be curious to how your body would react to such conditions. WE all have a natural clock that tells us when to sleep and when to wake. Would you see it gradually shift or would it stay pretty constant? How long would people stay in bed trying to sleep the time away? Personally I have a hard enough time sleeping more than 6 hours at a time. I would be up and would have to deal with the next 18 hours left up to my own devices. Reading would be easy to do, but there is the fact that if I didn't move and be active, by the time the year was up, i would look like Jabba the Hut. I think I would have to have a pullup bar, a jump rope and some wieghts to try and keep myself in some sort of working order.
Given books (all of pratchett's stuff), music (my entire collection would fit on a 20GB drive) and a couple boxes of 15 and 28mm miniatures and paints and I would probably do it. I could sort out the backlog of unpainted stuff for sure
My other sig sucks as well...
Oh man, if video games were allowed I'd hit that like vaseline on toast!
No TV....but I can see maybe a DS or a gameboy or the such.
Do you at least get a pen and notebooks like Old Boy?
most definately. or you can have a typewriter/word processor. I would need something to write with. The fucked up thoughts that would spawn from so much time to sit and think and stew....I would have to write down. Although if you looked back on those notebooks a number of years later (if you did the time), I am sure a questioning of one's sanity would be in order.
That would indeed be it. I can;t imagine spending 15 years in solitary confinement. Although I do wonder what the equivillant of 2 million dollars in 1889 would be today.
Again...15 years...that is a bit mind boggling.
Wikipedia also has some interesting things to say about solitude that I didn't know, such as how young people are better at adapting to it.
I debated on calling it "Solitary Confinement," but I chose this title for whatever reason.
But you can understand the passage of time that way.
What about if it was like the bio dome but it worked and was self contained.
Like The World in Morrison's X-Men run.
Except you get paid.
I think I would do it. The hardest thing for me would be never seing the sky I think. That and not interacting with anyone... I think a year like that would change you in strange ways. I can imagine that if you have any latent psychological problems, you might emerge a total nutcase.....
My bedroom is about 12 x 20 not counting bathroom & closets, and I had a hell of a time being stuck in there for 2 weeks WITH television, computer, and human contact. Of course, I was stuck in bed the entire time, but still...
No reward could ever compensate for things that have value but no pricetag.
How do you judge the monetary value of falling in love?
Making a new friend?
Babysitting someone's new puppy?
Hitting every green light?
Getting way too drunk after an unlucky game of beer pong?
Farting in a car full of friends and switching on the window lock?
Nah, it'd never be worth it.
I just say there's not enough space, nor the tools I would need.
I would probably conceede some additional space, but I wouldn't allow a computer or a TV.
I was judging the space on the Control center I work in. I have had some rather small bathrooms in my apartments and made due with no problems. For a kitchen, you simply need about 10 feet of counterspace and that would include the stove and sink.
I will up the space to the size of my friend's studio loft. 1300 square feet. That is a pretty big increase.
That adds an interesting wrinkle to the whole situation. Drug use. After so long in solitude....would drug use inspire a deeper break from reality?
I don't think i really could learn much of anything in that situation outside from personal enlightenment. I would spend most my time reading and writing. The more and more I think about it, the less and less sure I could actually pull off such a stunt.
For that reason, I think I would avoid this challenge.
I'd also like to have something to game on, but whatever.
or at least some up front money to pay for books.
one of those mp3 playing cd dealies, cause I'd fill up a shuffle too quick. Like, a couple spools of cds full of mp3. That would be good. Actual speakers instead of ear bud jobbies, cause it is not like I would bug anyone rocking out.
Writing stuff, pens papers that kinda thing. Punching bag.
I could manage alright. I'd end up a bit more disassociate, and would need some treatment when I came out. Otherwise, I'd manage.
I'd probably do it if that little detail was lifted. Doubly-so if I got my own deserted island - think St. Helena, but with better weather.
25 hours actually. and it breaks down all sorts of diffrent ways, like 12/13 25/25 15/10 6.25/6.25 x 2 but it always comes out to 25 for some reason.
The room size is pretty critical. A really small one like you describe and I might be clawing the walls with my fingernails.
Also, I'm pretending I don't have a wife and kids. There's no way I'd voluntarily leave them for a whole year.
A stocked bar would help immensely. I'd probably turn into an alcoholic, but it would really help ease the stress to be able to mix up a drink every few days.
Video games I think would be the big tie-breaker. I often fantasize about having a year to myself to do nothing but play through all the games I never had time to play. Hell, I'd almost pay for that privilege. I could blow months in a flash just playing through all the old Ultimas or something.
I might be able to replace video games with a lot of books, but that would be harder.
So, wake up, exercise, eat, read, eat, meditate, exercise again, play games, eat, drink, play games, read, go to bed. I could do that for a year, though I probably be depressed and a little strange for it.
I'd also have to have some sort of ironclad undoubtable guarantee that the door would open in a year. If I had already gone through about 400 sleep cycles and the door still wasn't opening, I'd start panicking in stress about whether or not I'm really just like a day or two from finishing, or its actually a big test and they are never going to open it.