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Inventor 2 ~Anti-Alcohol System

February 12, 2020

On this day, a middle aged man came to the inventor's office and told him of his concerns: The guy was attracted to alcohol. He had been drinking since he was a college student. He couldn't remember since when, but now, he would drink every day. He'd been wanting to have "no alcohol days" but couldn't. His drinking amount was not huge, a can of beer plus a couple of glasses of whisky and soda, and maybe some wine. He would exercise regularly at the gym and he didn't suffer from any sickness; maybe these were only his excuses why he couldn't reduce his alcohol intake. Recently, he had a fear that he might be sick because of alcohol. "Recently I read that alcohol affects our body, even if it is only a small amount. Before it was said that a suitable amount of alcohol is good for both our health and mental health, though."   The inventor said, "But… if I were you, I would go to a doctor. There are some doctors who specialize in this category, I suppose." The guy said, "I'm afraid of doctors. And, I don't think this is as serious as that, I am not an alcoholic. Although, I can't quit," he bitterly laughed. The inventor himself was a drinker so he didn't have confidence to make a suitable invention, but he asked him to come back to the office one week later. The inventor thought about when he quit smoking. At that time he had a health check and the result was that he needed to take a second examination for his stomach. He was shocked about thinking about the possibility of cancer. Immediately he made a reservation for a clinic, but as it was during a long vacation season, so he had to wait for about one month for the examination. For one month, he was in fear, and, of course, he didn't smoke. One month later, he went to the clinic and the doctor took some sample tissues from his stomack; the doctor said that it would take one month to get the results back. He shouted in his mind, "Another one month! If I have cancer and it is continuing to grow, who will take the responsibility!?" And, after one month, when the results came back, the doctor told him that there was no problem with his stomach, but he didn't have any yearning to restart smoking. He knew how timid he was and him being worried this much wouldn't ever match the pleasure of smoking. Making fear might be good for the guy in order to reduce his alcohol intake … One week later the guy came and the inventor handed him his invention and explained how to use it. A couple of weeks had past. The inventor started to think whether his machine might not have worked, because normally his invention receivers would come to report the results. After one month had passed, the guy finally came to the office with the machine. He put the machine on the table and started to talk about the results: When he had turned on this table-miller shaped machine at home one month before, and looked at his face in the mirror, he thought, who was this guy, who looked rather older than himself? "This was my face a month ago." He pushed a button on the mirror, and a picture appeared. The inventor nodded. When he looked at the picture of him, he looked unhealthy. The guy continued, "And this is the picture that the machine predicted about my face if I reduced alcohol by 20%, 50%, and 80%." Depending on levels, his face became younger and healthier. "When I looked at these pictures, I decided that I would aim for the best picture." His present face looked better than his 80% face. "So, I looked at this picture every day, comparing it with my own face. It kept motivation up. Every day, the machine took my facial picture automatically." He pushed a button on the mirror, and the pictures during the time started to line up. Accordingly, as time passed, his face looked better. The inventor nodded, although he knew that there was no medical reasoning for the gadget's prediction. He asked, "How much did you drink this past month?"  He smiled and said, "I want to say zero, but, actually, I had to go to two parties, but during the rest of the time, I didn't drink." The inventor was amazed, "So you didn't drink unless you went to a party?" The guy nodded. The guy said to the inventor, "I have a question. How did you get this idea? This is so simple, but somehow it would be hard to think of. Didn't you think about more direct methods? I thought that you would make a gadget that would give a penalty if I drank." The inventor said, "You are right. At first, I thought of a machine that if you touched a bottle of alcohol, some electricity would come to your hand, so when you saw any alcohol you would feel sick like Pavlov's Dog. The second one was similar, making a machine which would make the alcohol taste bad, another Pavlov's Dog approach. This is embarrassing, but the third one was more childish, to put alcohol in a box which had a lock. To unlock the box, one would need to answer several questions, so you would get tired before starting to drink, and so naturally you would give up." "But, you thought that they wouldn't work, correct?"  "Yeah. One: The more it becomes difficult to get, the more people would long for it. Two: More importantly, alcohol isn't our enemy. Alcohol has been improved upon for thousands of years. It is a kind of an invention and fruit of our ancestors' sweat and effort. As long as we can control it, it can be our good friend." The guy said, "I'm thinking the same way. This machine gave me confidence to control my cravings. There is a saying..."  "Drink alcohol. Don't be drunk by alcohol," they said at the same time, and laughed and laughed.

*intake :摂取
*yeaning :切望
*long :欲する
*craving :渇望