3 Pay a high-end renovation construction firm to come over and install a new floor. Escape when they open the door to come in.
4 Jump on the floor until it breaks.
5 Practice a way of making extremely loud noises (e.g. singing for maximum resonance with the surrounding material) to be able to call for help
6 Break off a finger and create lock-picking equipment from the bones in my hand
7 Do strength training everyday to get a lot stronger to be able to break the wall
8 Learn to generate a noise which calls a nearby animal to open/destroy the door from the outside. (E.g. by convincing it that it has a friend in need of help inside.)
9 Try to contact and negotiate with the people who locked me in the room.
10 Use my clothes to build a rope to the door handle, and hang on it with all my weight until it snaps.
11 Make some convincing way of feigning my death, causing the people who trapped me to go into the room to investigate, and then take my opportunity to escape.
12 Blackmail the people who trapped me by threatening to commit suicide.
13 Search across all of the walls to see if there’s one spot that’s weaker than the others.
14 Rub items against wall to create a lot of heat and melt the wall.
15 Jump on the handle until it breaks.
16 Learn to cartwheel and use that to obtain maximal force in order to kick the handle until it breaks.
17 Figure out how on earth I’m getting enough energy to go for 10 years without food or water and somehow leverage that energy to break out.
18 Contact law enforcement—describe the specifications of the building, and go through all possible buildings that could contain such a room.
19 Techniques to winnow down the search: try to figure out what my circadian rhythm is. When do I get tired? Might help me locate the timezone.
20 Estimating thickness of wall could allow winnowing down potential houses.
21 Call a false alarm to a SWAT team and get them to rescue me.
22 Tell the media something amazing is hidden in the room.
23 Convince Elon Musk it would be good PR to bore me out with a Boring Company machine.
24 Create online propaganda causing there to be armed conflict in my location to the extent that a hole is blasted in the wall.
25 If the room is by a window get a friend to come over with a tower crane or a rear mount fire truck ladder and get me out.
26 Disassemble the rest of the house and lift my cell to the ground. Convince someone to bring it to a place with frequent earth quakes. Wait for the next one to destroy the cell.
27 Realise that the true prison is the prison of desire, become content with my situation, and live happily with the internet for the coming 10 years.
28 Become a famous YouTuber due to my weird situation, to the extent that others send me help and advice.
29 Grow out my nails really long, then cut them off and sharpen them into tiny knives. Cut through the wall.
30 Get a friend to slide in sandpaper under the door.
31 Get a friend to slide in the pieces for a 3d printer under the door. Assemble it, and print what tool I need.
32 Loosen some of my teeth and scrape them against the wall until I go through.
33 Go online, tell the story of my dramatic escape, convince whomever put me in the room that I actually escaped, to the point where they go open the door and enable me to escape for real.
34 Get a friend to use a saw from the outside.
35 If it’s wood, try to set it on fire (e.g. by scratching things to make them hot) and figure out a way to to crash through the burning side moderately safely.
36 Spend the remaining 10 years creating an AI replica of me. Anywhere that clone goes I go. No need for my original physical source to escape.
37 Create a global movement of people living inside cells like mine. Voíla—now the term “escape” makes no sense! I’m just like everyone else.
38 If it’s a wooden room, get someone to apply some sort of wood-eating parasites from the outside.
39 Etch a message into my clothes, slide clothes under door and hang them up against window, to broadcast my call for help.
40 Tie a long rope/string out of my hair, figure out a way to tie the knots in a way that communicates a message (e.g. using the distance between them to spell out morse code). Use it to call for help.
41 Try to rub my hands rapidly against my phone, while it’s using its most powerful app, to the point where it overheats and explodes. Find a way to channel the explosion to break through a door/wall/window.
42 Well, call the police I guess.
43 Convince a crowd of online supporters to join and bring their home drills.
44 Wrecking ball from outside + figure out some way of protecting myself, e.g. by moving to the far corner of the room, and carefully controlling the wrecking ball blast.
47 Attach something to the roof to hold it up. Then, in a theatrical fashion, attach some hook to the other four walls and remove them all at the same time.
Some credit for #6 to HPMOR (spoilers for early chapters):
“In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, there’s a scene early on where Harry lists out numerous ways of utilizing only the materials in the classroom to defend against attackers. He goes fairly overboard, naming things from the school robes (which could strangle someone), to the air (which could be taken out to asphyxiate everyone), to the bones of Hufflepuffs (which could be sharpened into bones as weapons).” https://mindlevelup.wordpress.com/2016/12/03/intent-to-overkill/
Here are my answers:
1 Pound the wall until it breaks.
2 Claw the wall until is breaks.
3 Pay a high-end renovation construction firm to come over and install a new floor. Escape when they open the door to come in.
4 Jump on the floor until it breaks.
5 Practice a way of making extremely loud noises (e.g. singing for maximum resonance with the surrounding material) to be able to call for help
6 Break off a finger and create lock-picking equipment from the bones in my hand
7 Do strength training everyday to get a lot stronger to be able to break the wall
8 Learn to generate a noise which calls a nearby animal to open/destroy the door from the outside. (E.g. by convincing it that it has a friend in need of help inside.)
9 Try to contact and negotiate with the people who locked me in the room.
10 Use my clothes to build a rope to the door handle, and hang on it with all my weight until it snaps.
11 Make some convincing way of feigning my death, causing the people who trapped me to go into the room to investigate, and then take my opportunity to escape.
12 Blackmail the people who trapped me by threatening to commit suicide.
13 Search across all of the walls to see if there’s one spot that’s weaker than the others.
14 Rub items against wall to create a lot of heat and melt the wall.
15 Jump on the handle until it breaks.
16 Learn to cartwheel and use that to obtain maximal force in order to kick the handle until it breaks.
17 Figure out how on earth I’m getting enough energy to go for 10 years without food or water and somehow leverage that energy to break out.
18 Contact law enforcement—describe the specifications of the building, and go through all possible buildings that could contain such a room.
19 Techniques to winnow down the search: try to figure out what my circadian rhythm is. When do I get tired? Might help me locate the timezone.
20 Estimating thickness of wall could allow winnowing down potential houses.
21 Call a false alarm to a SWAT team and get them to rescue me.
22 Tell the media something amazing is hidden in the room.
23 Convince Elon Musk it would be good PR to bore me out with a Boring Company machine.
24 Create online propaganda causing there to be armed conflict in my location to the extent that a hole is blasted in the wall.
25 If the room is by a window get a friend to come over with a tower crane or a rear mount fire truck ladder and get me out.
26 Disassemble the rest of the house and lift my cell to the ground. Convince someone to bring it to a place with frequent earth quakes. Wait for the next one to destroy the cell.
27 Realise that the true prison is the prison of desire, become content with my situation, and live happily with the internet for the coming 10 years.
28 Become a famous YouTuber due to my weird situation, to the extent that others send me help and advice.
29 Grow out my nails really long, then cut them off and sharpen them into tiny knives. Cut through the wall.
30 Get a friend to slide in sandpaper under the door.
31 Get a friend to slide in the pieces for a 3d printer under the door. Assemble it, and print what tool I need.
32 Loosen some of my teeth and scrape them against the wall until I go through.
33 Go online, tell the story of my dramatic escape, convince whomever put me in the room that I actually escaped, to the point where they go open the door and enable me to escape for real.
34 Get a friend to use a saw from the outside.
35 If it’s wood, try to set it on fire (e.g. by scratching things to make them hot) and figure out a way to to crash through the burning side moderately safely.
36 Spend the remaining 10 years creating an AI replica of me. Anywhere that clone goes I go. No need for my original physical source to escape.
37 Create a global movement of people living inside cells like mine. Voíla—now the term “escape” makes no sense! I’m just like everyone else.
38 If it’s a wooden room, get someone to apply some sort of wood-eating parasites from the outside.
39 Etch a message into my clothes, slide clothes under door and hang them up against window, to broadcast my call for help.
40 Tie a long rope/string out of my hair, figure out a way to tie the knots in a way that communicates a message (e.g. using the distance between them to spell out morse code). Use it to call for help.
41 Try to rub my hands rapidly against my phone, while it’s using its most powerful app, to the point where it overheats and explodes. Find a way to channel the explosion to break through a door/wall/window.
42 Well, call the police I guess.
43 Convince a crowd of online supporters to join and bring their home drills.
44 Wrecking ball from outside + figure out some way of protecting myself, e.g. by moving to the far corner of the room, and carefully controlling the wrecking ball blast.
45 Sledgehammer from outside.
46 Have thousands of people touch the outside each day, as a ritual gesture, and have it smooth away over the years like that statue of Saint Peter in the Vatican.
47 Attach something to the roof to hold it up. Then, in a theatrical fashion, attach some hook to the other four walls and remove them all at the same time.
48 Use the plug and feather technique for splitting stone (Maybe this would even be possible from the inside using teeth and hair/cloth?)
49 Laser from outside.
50 Drill a hole big enough to give me a spacesuit. Put it on. Then move the entire room and place it within a vacuum until it explodes outwards.
#6 has pleasing shock value, and #33 is something I wish I had thought of, while simultaneously being good for a laugh.
Some credit for #6 to HPMOR (spoilers for early chapters):
“In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, there’s a scene early on where Harry lists out numerous ways of utilizing only the materials in the classroom to defend against attackers. He goes fairly overboard, naming things from the school robes (which could strangle someone), to the air (which could be taken out to asphyxiate everyone), to the bones of Hufflepuffs (which could be sharpened into bones as weapons).”
https://mindlevelup.wordpress.com/2016/12/03/intent-to-overkill/
Numbers 23 and 37 made me chuckle. I also liked the resigned tone of 42.