In fact, access to more resources leads so universally and predictably to an increase in artificial light that researchers have even used it as a proxy for economic growth, (Location 640)
But even more saliently: in 1950, a housewife could single-handedly produce a middle-class standard of living for her family while her 1850 counterpart would likely have had one or many servants—“hired help”—to do the same. (Location 698)
While it’s a messy, imperfect conversion, we can estimate our power consumption from daily caloric intake, since calories are a unit of energy and days are a unit of time, and it works out to roughly the same as a modern television, 100 watts or so. (Location 837)
That power consumption also defines our maximum output, because we can’t put more energy back into the world than we can get from our food except over short periods (Location 840)
