50 points - hot partner
40 points - internet
10 points - basic food.
Hell, that would be an improvement over current life.
I thought this was going to be relatively simple until I realized I’d have to pay out points for medications, some of which I can’t live without. That forced me to give up my high-speed internet access, dammit.
Ultimately, I could easily survive with:
[ul]
[li]20 points for the healthy food option. Might as well use the time to reform my bad habits, right?[/li][li]20 points for hygiene products.[/li][li]10 points for the aforementioned medical supplies.[/li][li]10 points for the company of a dog or cat. (I’m assuming my hygiene products would include some way to dispose of its waste.)[/li][li]10 points for books.[/li][li]10 points for a shower.[/li][li]10 points for radio.[/li][li]5 points for unlimited paper and writing/drawing instruments.[/li][li]5 points for a small window that can be opened to admit outside air.[/li][/ul]
This hypothetical situation is distressingly similar to my actual life :(.
Are we forced into this immediately? Also, with the computer option, do we get a printer? What about bed linens and a pillow? Does the shower get you a towel?
Going off of what I know so far, here is what I’d pick:
10 - shower, because that can be an escape on top of everything else
10 - cat, although I’d prefer a dog, it would have a better time in captivity
40 - computer, for all the reasons stated
40 - chef, because he or she can offer companionship, make you healthy food too, and afford you supplies that are useful for other things (baking soda to brush your teeth, vegetable brushes for your teeth or hair, products with labels you can co-opt for decorations)
HD TV (10)
Video games (10)
Take five years off the sentence (60)
Something to eat (10)
Shower (10)
60 points for not aging. (This is BIG, non-negotiable, and the only way I would ever agree to this crazy deal.)
10 points for food; obviously, this is also non-negotiable. (I really, really hope “fast food” includes such places as Panera or Chipotle, but even if it doesn’t, I could probably manage to pull together a diet I can live with. Shoot, even McDonald’s has salad and apple slices nowadays.)
That leaves 30 points. Not enough for Internet, and only just enough for a random companion for an hour a day, which means I’d be going stir-crazy for the other 23 hours. Hmm. I think I’ll scrap the companion, and spend my 30 points as follows:
- 10 points for EVERY BOOK EVER
- 5 points for paper and writing utensils (Can we correspond with people on the outside? I can totally live with this deal if we’re allowed.)
- 10 points for shower / bath / sink (I reckon you can keep clean enough with water alone if you wash often enough)
- 5 points for a deck of cards, I guess, since I really don’t care about having a mirror. (Although I would much rather prorate the companionship thing, and have a random Doper’s company for 10 minutes a day, if we’re allowed to do that.)
10 Fast food
10 Alcohol
10 Tobacco - I’m assuming I can get Drum tobacco
10 Shower/bath/sink
20 Hygene products
40 Computer w/internet
60 Points to not age! Sign me up. We’re bending the laws of physics here, so Ihave one question. Will others age outside my room or will I emerge from my 10 years as if nothing happened in real life (frozen in time)?
10 Points for crappy food. But as others have pointed out you can make some reasonably good meals by picking and choosing what you eat. Milk from kids meals, apple slices, subway bread and veggies. Nothing great but oh well. If Panera bread, Bad Ass Jacks and other great options are available then this might not be too bad actually.
10 Points for unlimited books. Great - this will be entertainment and a time to learn new things. It almost takes the place of the internet really since it is unlimited (too bad you can’t skype through books though).
10 Points for a workout room fillled with work out machines you want. This is KEY - Critical. I would request every workout machine ever known to man. In exchange I will have a Massive workout room. This would definately include several models of those aquatic swim machines (some of which would consequently double as my bath, laundry and sink). If I can have a 400 meter track, an ice skating rink and a Olympic pool sign me up for those too.
10 Points for a dog since it would be a better companion than a cat and I’m going to have this incredibly large workout room for it to run around in.
At the end of 10 years I’m going to be well read and smarter and in awesome shape from working out so much. And I won’t have aged a day!
Another thought:
50 Points: Cryogenic Sleep Chamber
50 Points: 100 Billion Dollars
Ok, let’s start with absolute essentials (imho):
Food: maybe, depending on the exact definition of “fast food” you could get a healthy diet if you were careful enough; but I’ll pick the pre-made healthy food:
20 points
Companionship: It’ll have to be the Doper visitors, because being that tightly confined with anyone wouldn’t work:
30 points
(ok, early release is now off the table 
)
Other Perks: For health, hygiene and sanity purposes, a shower is necessary, to me anyway:
10 points
And for the balance, full Internet access:
40 points
Actually, that wouldn’t be all that more deprived an existence than what I live now.
50 points: an extra 1,000,000,000 points! Can I do that?
My list would be something like this:
Computer with unlimited/unbreakable internet - 40 (I could do any TV watching on it and communicate with the outside world, read, listen to music and, with a midi and printer compose/play music and do some creative writing.)
Master cook - 40 (food, companion and access to a sink, soap, baking soda, brushes, etc)
Workout room - 10 (mine would include a lap pool to double as my bathing facility)
Medical kit - 10 (I would hope that this would include prescription meds to keep me alive, otherwise, like panache, I wouldn’t have to worry about one year, let alone ten. Besides, having a headache or upset stomach would be downright miserable without something to alleviate the problem.)
While I would love to have a pet to pass the time, I don’t know if I would want to live that confined with a cat box and having no place to walk a dog, things would become pretty unsanitary in short time.
I also don’t know if I could tolerate having only my SO as a companion 24/7 and I definitely wouldn’t subject him to a ten year incarceration. With the chef, I would have to assume that it would be her choice to accept this assignment and that she would be well compensated.
As far as Dopers as companions for an hour a day, that’s why I have a computer. 
Locked in a room with high speed internet and only fast food?
The only problem I see with that is that I would be kicked out from that paradise in only ten years.
If I may suggest another dimension to the thought experiment… You should come up with a cash value for the points, and then if someone only uses 90 points, they can cash in the unused 10 points for $xxx after their ten years are up and they get out. That way you can *really *make these “sounds great, sign me up!” people think twice about what’s the bare minimum they can get by with for ten years.
I mean, 10 points for a cat, or say, $100,000 when you get out? Would anyone still seriously pick the cat?
Yep, me. $100K is chicken feed. Make a couple of million and I might think about it.
Fairly attractive mate - 50 points
Fast food - 10 points
shower, bath, sink - 10 points
workout room - 10 points
writing or drawing utensil - 5 points
every book in existence ever - 10 points
lousy deck of cards - 5 points
I am actually once person who would love the deck of cards. This is because card magic tricks is actually one of mhmy hobbies. Don’t diss the cards!
I was trying to keep it reasonable. Are you saying that you wouldn’t take less than $2 million for sacrificing the right to have a cat in solitary confinement for ten years? You must be seriously rich, a serious cat lover, or likely both if you wouldn’t take, say, $500k instead of a cat?!
How about if we made 10 points = 2 years of your expected income? Or, what about if after release, everybody has to live on a base budget which is equal to exactly the average person’s personal annual income, and nothing more except for what you redeem unused points for. Then what’s the least you would take for giving up a cat’s company for 10 years?
Have fun impressing your reflection in the mirror with your card tricks. Oh wait, you did budget enough points for a mirror, didn’t you? 
I was able to buy everything on the list because for 50 points I bought another 1,000,000 points! 
Also, card magic, even when not used to impress someone is fun and time-passing.
Me! I seriously want a cat now, but can’t afford one. If I could come up with an extra 10 points, I would get a second cat.