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Either the creator god, source of a better world, seeded it from the divine, or the newborn earth just drawn from the highest heavens still contained fragments related to the skies, so that Prometheus, blending them with streams of rain, molded them into an image of the all-controlling gods. While other animals look downwards at the ground, he gave human beings an upturned aspect, commanding them to look towards the skies, and, upright, raise their face to the stars. So the earth, that had been, a moment ago, uncarved and imageless, changed and assumed the unknown shapes of human beings.

21. The Once and Future Light

The spiritual instant that is our life...

—HENRI FOCILLON,

The Life of Forms in Art

WE IMAGINE THE FAR PAST as a world carved out of the dark, guttering flame by guttering flame, a past full of other people, and the crackle and smell of other lights: rushes, moss, spruce twigs, tallow, whale oil, and pine. Light in a world lacking it, where abundance and brilliance are a dream flaring for a moment and then gone, where light itself means one thing, the materials of it another: the rushlights of the poor, the beeswax of the church. But they aren't so far away, those people back there. We who live in a world built of light still carry the longings of those without it, still dream of abundance and brilliance even though we can have all the light we want—almost any kind—and have it in an instant.

Given what we have, and given what we know about the power of light and the limits of our resources, about the trajectory of a changing climate, how will we choose to illuminate our future? Can we overcome the desire for ever more and brighter light? Can we think rationally about light and what it means to us? One of the first things we ask of light is that it grant us some assurance in the dark. Except during the threat of aerial bombardment or under the glare of interrogation, it has almost always made us feel safer. But whether or not it truly ensures our safety is an open question, one that has been argued since the seventeenth century, when a few European cities expressly forbade streetlights for fear that they encouraged footpads and drunks, even as other cities were installing them in hopes of bringing order to the night.

Although criminals have historically avoided light—at least since the Middle Ages, when thieves shied away from nights of the full moon—it doesn't certainly keep them away when they sense an opportunity. British astronomer Bob Mizon notes, "The Home Office Crime Survey, published in October 2000 and based on the experience of victims of crime, suggests that premises which have security lighting are as likely to be broken into as those without it." Mizon also relates the story of "a car storage area, unoccupied at night, but not much lit up. It was near a major highway, and burglars would pull off, cut a hole in a fence, grab parts and leave, fast. The police finally caught one, and asked 'Would better lighting help?' The burglar replied: 'Sure, I could get in and out a lot faster and not get caught.'"

How complex the relation between light and street crime may be is illustrated by a study undertaken by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. In the late 1990s, researchers evaluated the impact of increased lighting in Chicago alleyways where the Department of Streets and Sanitation had replaced 90-watt lights with 250-watt lamps. In the ensuing months, violent crime at night increased by 14 percent, crimes to property increased by 20 percent, and substance abuse violations increased by 51 percent, while daytime offenses in the alleyways decreased by 7 percent. The authors of the study came to no clear conclusions as to why there was such a surge in crime, but they suggested that perhaps both citizens and police were witness to more offenses in the brightly lit alleyways, and consequently reported more of them. Perhaps, too, the greater illumination made residents feel more secure, so more