Powering the Dream_ The History and Promise of Green Technology - Alexis Madrigal [60]
In Hebrew, luz means many things. Most simply, it’s the word for almond, but nothing is really simple about the word. It can denote the place in Canaan where Jacob had his vision of a ladder covered in angels climbing into heaven and back down again. “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven,” the Book of Genesis records him saying.11 The name Jacob gave the place, Beit El, means house of God. The connection to solar power, which uses energy arriving from space to make electricity on earth, is obvious. But there are more oblique and intriguing meanings.
In Jewish mystic texts, the meaning of Luz extends far beyond the story of Jacob’s Ladder. Luz can also refer to a mystical place that is hidden from view, reachable only through a cave associated with a particular almond tree. Some say only true words can be spoken there.12 One modern Rabbi has written that
This city was hidden from outsiders and even seasoned warriors could not penetrate its exterior. The singular passage to Luz was camouflaged by the foliage of an almond tree whose hollowed out trunk led into a cave that led into a corridor that led into a city of spiritual light. The City of Luz was impervious to destruction by conquering nations and its inhabitants continuously lived as a cohesive community throughout the millennia and were neither driven from their home nor ever assimilated or lost their unique purpose.13
Furthermore, the luz is a mythical bone in the body located somewhere in the lower back, from which some sects believe the Jewish people will be reincarnated. 14 Some rabbis argue that as the Jewish people will be rebuilt from the luz bone, the world will be rebuilt from the city of Luz.15
In most corporate histories, perhaps the company’s name would not bear such deep inspection, but Arnold Goldman did not intend Luz to be taken lightly or superficially. His working paper is a two hundred–page tract that attempts to unite modern observations of space-time with the Torah’s teaching to create a new ethical framework for life.16 Along the way, he envisions a new Israeli solar-powered utopia.
He pleads for a new type of intellectualism he calls biocosmology, which will allow humans to “clearly see the relationship between the whole and the particulars of daily life.”17 Goldman’s detailed description of Luz does not adhere to the conventions of utopian writing; it does not skimp on the practical. In Luz, there are companies and people who have regular jobs, but everything from product design to energy usage to corporate shareholder structure is informed by a devout belief in the unified (infra)structure for the universe. It is an engineer’s paradise.
Goldman describes Luz as a set of two interlinked communities. Residents would live on a seven-year cycle, spending five years in the urban Luz, one year doing what they wanted, and one year at Luz North, an agricultural settlement. They would work four days a week at their regular jobs and two days a week developing “a concept which they believe increases their understanding and personal relationship with the unity and wholeness of the universe.”18 It would have been a bit like Google’s 20 Percent projects, which allow employees to dedicate one-fifth of their time to self-chosen projects, but on spiritual steroids. Corporations would not exist in perpetuity, but would be sold after fifty years, with the proceeds disbursed to investors and employees on the basis of their service and value to the entity.
The urban settlement would be dense. One-third of a mile long and 1.2 miles wide, it “can easily be traversed on foot.” No cars are needed for travel within the city. All automobiles are parked underground. For those who need to get around quickly, electric carts, “similar in design to some of the cars used on the more elaborate