Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light

Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light – A World History of Technology, Human Civilization, and Ecological Impact

Brilliant, reminiscent of Lewis Hydeâ€™s The Gift in its reach and of Timothy Eganâ€™s The Worst Hard Time in its haunting evocation of human lives, offers a sweeping view of a surprisingly revealing aspect of human historyâ€”from the stone lamps of the Pleistocene to the LEDs embedded in fabrics of the future.

Brox plumbs the class implications of lightâ€”who had it, who didnâ€™tâ€”through the many centuries when crude lamps and tallow candles constricted waking hours. She convincingly portrays the hell-bent pursuit of whale oil as the first time the human desire for light thrust us toward an environmental tipping point. Only decades later, gas street lights opened up the evening hours to leisure, which changed the ways we live and sleep and the worldâ€™s ecosystems.

Edisonâ€™s â€œtiny strip of paper that a breath would blow awayâ€ produced a light that seemed to its users all but divorced from human effort or cost. And yet, as Broxâ€™s informative and hair-raising portrait of our current grid system shows, the cost is ever with us.

Brilliant is infused with human voices, startling insights, andâ€”only a few years before it becomes illegal to sell most incandescent light bulbs in the United Statesâ€”timely questions about how our future lives will be shaped by light.
Country USA
Brand Mariner
Manufacturer Mariner Books
Binding Paperback
ReleaseDate 2011-07-07
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780547520346

Country	USA
Brand	Mariner
Manufacturer	Mariner Books
Binding	Paperback
ReleaseDate	2011-07-07
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780547520346

Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light – A World History of Technology, Human Civilization, and Ecological Impact

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