Post #1440273

2026-04-20 13:05 UTC

Habryka @ LW takes a break from inventing Western civilization from first Rat principles to advocate a RETVRN to incandescent lighting: Eventually, in most of the western world outside of the US, incandescent lightbulbs were literally banned to promote energy saving policies. This was the greatest uglification in history. Within two decades, much of the world that was previously filled with beautiful natural-feeling light started feeling alien, slightly off, and uncomfortable, and societal stigma around energy-saving policies prevented people from really doing anything about it. lesswrong.com/…/if-a-room-feels-off-the-lighting-…

Replies (4)

@YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 2026-04-20 15:17

Dramatic fascistic “RETVRN” language and focus on aesthetics aside, my wife and I actually dug into some of this lighting quality stuff a while ago and while our very good friend here does a poor job explaining it there is a definite difference in normal LEDs vs incandescent or natural light. The LED spectra is fascinating - big spikes at a couple wavelengths and nothing in between. In my experience with switching to the fancier high-CRI LEDs the difference is pretty minimal. Feels like a possible case where you don’t notice it, but your brain does. For my wife it seems to have helped reduce the incidence and severity of her crippling migraines, which is obviously more impactful. I don’t think I’d say it beautified the space or brought us back to the halcyon days of our glorious past, but that’s been huge for us all the same. The plural of anecdote is not cliche, but there’s not nothing here.

Open ##1445463
@Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems 2026-04-20 16:48

jesus fucking christ this is insufferable, these guys have been masking off for so long now that they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel to find new things to do fascist signalling about

Open ##1449102
@Soyweiser@awful.systems 2026-04-20 16:53

This was the greatest uglification in history. Seems like a market opportunity for some special lights/glass that recreates the natural feeling light they want. (I have some lower light leds in older style lamps and I’m having, for me, nice and cosy lighting. Only issue seems to be me getting older and my eyes getting worse with age.

Open ##1449200
@CinnasVerses@awful.systems 2026-04-20 15:14

Who TF was using LED lights for indoor lighting in the 1990s? Compact flourescents were the lightbulb replacement in the oughties. And how TF do you write that post without using the phrase "sensory sensitivity" and citing some women who know they have autism? Once you know you are more sensitive to your environment than allistics, you can start to experiment with interventions.

Open ##1831375