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"People are choosing to allow television and Electronic Arts to do all their imagining for them."
- Peter Watts

Sobriety Ray  
  A ray of a particular wavelength and intensity, that conferred instant sobriety on those it shone upon.  

Two hours later a taxi let Kerry out at his door. He was remarkably drunk...

The radio came forward to meet him. Tentacles, thin, but strong as metal, coiled gently around his body, holding him motionless...

From the radio panel a beam of yellow light shot out, blinding the man. It swung down, aimed at his chest. Abruptly a queer taste was perceptible under Kerry's tongue.

He was sober.

Technovelgy from The Twonky, by Lewis Padgett.
Published by Street and Smith in 1942
Additional resources -

Padgett offers an interesting bit of pseudoscience for how it works, based on a false analogy to the manner in which the body manufactures vitamin D.

"The vibrationary equivalent of thiamin chloride... There's vitamin content in sunlight, you know."
Patients with chronic alcoholism or experiencing alcohol withdrawal are at risk of thiamin deficiency and its associated complications, and are given thiamin prior to rehydrating them.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Twonky
  More Ideas and Technology by Lewis Padgett
  Tech news articles related to The Twonky
  Tech news articles related to works by Lewis Padgett

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Science Fiction in the News

Jetson ONE Air Races Begin, Can Air Polo Be Far Behind?
'If you're one of those rarities who haven't attended a rocket-polo "carnage", let me tell you it's a colorful affair.'

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'They filed clumsily into the battleroom, like children in a swimming pool for the first time, clinging to the handholds along the side.'

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'Robot-salesmen were everywhere, gesturing...'

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'a walking balloon proceeded with long strides of its aluminum legs...'

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'Most men updated their PIP on New Year's Day...'

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'...a misshapen, many-tentacled thing about twice the size of a man.'

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Where have you gone, Mrs. Robinson?

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