你会在追求幸福的旅途中走多远？
2023-04-05 07:56阅读：
How far would you go in pursuit of
happiness?
Some people, it seems, would gladly spend three years on a cruise
ship
JOY LO DICO
Here's my Hollywood pitch for the next big dystopian film: a
middle-aged yoga queen has woken up in a ship's cabin, having
agreed to cohabit with an early-retiree crypto enthusiast to bring
down costs. They met via social media, natch.
There's a catch. This isn't a quick tour of the Mediterranean. It
is a three-year global cruise, with no escape. As each participant
has sunk more than £70,000 into this trip, there's no room for
regret. In fact, not much room at all. Shared quarters measure 130
sq ft, with no window. The WiFi has gone down.
Sadly for me, Life At Sea Cruises, a
subsidiary of the Turkish cruise line Miray, has already nabbed my
idea and turned much of it into reality. The MV Gemini will weigh
anchor from Istanbul this November. Onboard will be passengers
who’ve signed up to the promise of “13 of the 14 wonders of the
world”, on a tour that will include every continent, including
Antarctica, along with top-quality WiFi. The starting price per
person in a two-berth interior cabin is $90,000 for the full three
years — shorter terms are not on offer; triple that for a suite
with a balcony. For those who prefer solitary confinement, it’s
just under $170,000.
Where will they find 1,074 fools for this ship? Seemingly it is not
so difficult. There’s a private Facebook group for people
considering signing up for the trip. Here’s the plot twist: the
group doesn’t just consist of boomers looking to burn through their
pensions, but also mid-life singletons, many of them searching for
companions to take the other bunk. Strangers were responding,
agreements being negotiated, reality being suspended.
In media interviews, even Life At Sea’s managing director, Mikael
Petterson, seemed surprised at the demographic. The pitch to
Americans was that it was cheaper than assisted living and the
company had even installed a morgue onboard. The average age of
sign-ups is in the fifties and 26 per cent are under 47. A quarter
of all would-be passengers describe themselves as “digital
nomads”.
The younger members showing interest so far appear to have had
regular professional careers or run their own businesses. A few are
considering taking their teenage children along. On the Facebook
group in early March, Petterson claimed to have received 120,000
contact requests in just nine days. There was scepticism from those
interested about whether the company could meet its promises or
would just sail off into the sunset with their dreams. There were
also folk who’d announced they had paid their deposits as if they’d
struck gold. If they follow through, Life At Sea residents will be
an odd collection of seasick romantics, well-off retirees,
thrill-seekers and boredom-avoiders.
The desire to be free of the bonds of the real world is strong.
Reddit commenters have already queried whether being at sea for
three years means governments can’t dip into your pay cheque. Is
being trapped on a storm-tossed vessel with strangers wanting to
make small-talk worth the tax break?
If they follow through, Life At Sea residents will be an odd
collection of seasick romantics, well-off retirees, thrill-seekers
and boredom-avoiders
There may be some higher aspirations. Seasteading — the idea of
creating semi-permanent settlements out on the water — taps into
utopian dreams of an alternative society, like communes and
geodesic domes. Proposals for on-sea communities are often floated:
Buckminster Fuller’s Triton City; the Freedom Ship, for tens of
thousand of inhabitants, designed and costed back in the 1990s;
more recently, the ill-fated MS Satoshi, aimed at crypto bros,
which was to be moored off Panama, and Storylines’ MV Narrative, a
luxury liner launching in 2025, on which a studio starts at around
$600,000. Most don’t make it off the ground, let alone into the
water.
Yet, I suspect that for some it’s not just the freedom of the seas,
from Polynesia to Alaska, that is spurring this but a more mundane
allure. Included in the price are three cooked meals a day, with
wine and beer at dinner, daily housekeeping and a weekly
wash-and-fold service — not such a bad deal when compared with the
cost of living in a global city.
It is another form of escape — a return to teenage years when time
was plentiful, responsibilities scarce and deep friendships
fleeting. But the experience also eliminates one of life’s most
significant burdens: choice. The next destination is planned,
dinner options onboard are limited, your contract is binding.
When the MV Gemini sails, it will be a petri dish for the study of
human dreams versus disappointment. The plot of this movie has an
easy course, already charted. Despite the passengers starting off
enthusiastic and signing up for regular “enrichment seminars” on
deck, disillusionment may set in at every new longitude and
latitude.
Thirty-foot waves will harass the ship. Passengers will harass the
captain if the Starlink satellite WiFi connection collapses.
Instagram followers will disengage as enthusiasm for photographs of
ocean horizons dwindles. Factions will develop. Mutiny may be
threatened.
The pursuit of happiness is often fraught with misery. That’s a
lesson better learnt in two hours in a movie theatre than three
years in the middle of the Pacific.
