Before there was light: Humans have never been the same since we got the light bulb

Think back to the last time your home and neighborhood were plunged into darkness.

That was Breck Parkman’s experience for 10 nights when the 2017 Nuns and Tubbs fires cut power to his Sonoma County home, and he and his teenage son suddenly had to live without a bright and steady source of light.

“We just did candles, and we had an old oil lamp,” says Parkman, a retired archaeologist with the California State Parks.

The experience reminded Parkman of how local Native American...