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Re:Economic growth no longer requires rising emissions by andsoitis on Friday November 11, 2022 @09:15AM (#33561023)
> This idea that you need to have your lights on all night is rather recent. For a very very long time people survived by following the natural rythms of daylight.

People have used fire, candles for a very very long time to provide light at night.

Re:Economic growth no longer requires rising emissions by bombcar on Friday November 11, 2022 @10:47AM (#33562255)
Lighting is a very small fraction of our energy usage (about 5%): https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=99&t=3

If we built our houses right, we could drastically shift energy usage requirements for heating and cooling to daylight hours (utilizing thermal mass storage like https://www.steffes.com/ets/ )

Re:Economic growth no longer requires rising emissions by AngryData on Friday November 11, 2022 @04:32PM (#33567131)
Also you can't underestimate moon light either in premodern times. Deep in the trees or an urban landscape with tall buildings all around it is less reliable, but even a half moon on a clear night without washing your vision out with bright artificial lights leaves you with a ton of light. And even when overcast you aren't completely blinded at night as long as you have a decent amount of sky above you.

I think the idea of people sleeping as soon as the sun is down and not just doing low-light activities even 3000 years ago as ridiculous despite being a pervasive idea.