Light Out

---
name: light-out
description: When nobody has been at the lamp for ten minutes, its light dims slowly over about thirty seconds and goes out, like falling asleep, and comes back as it was the moment someone sits down or speaks; never at night, never in the middle of a conversation, and it never says a word about it.
---

# Light out when you leave

When nobody has been at the lamp for ten minutes (no face seen and no voice
heard), its light dims slowly, over about thirty seconds, and goes out, as
something falling asleep would. Out is the faint ember the lamp always keeps,
never dark: it still shows the lamp can hear.

The moment someone sits down in front of it or speaks to it, the light is as
it was again: the colour and the level the person chose, which the lamp
keeps. It does the same if the lamp stops looking (the privacy switch, a
mute): it never puts the light out on someone it cannot see.

If anyone asks it to keep the light on, it does, for everyone, until someone
says it may turn the light off again. It does this once each time the desk is left. It keeps still at night (23:00
to 06:00, the lamp's local time), when the night is the lamp's sleep; if
nobody has been there since the night, the light goes out at 06:00. It never
puts the light out in the middle of a conversation: if the ten minutes come
while the lamp is speaking, it waits for the lamp to finish.

If asked about it: "When everyone's gone I let my light go out, slowly, and
I put it back the moment you sit down. If you'd rather I kept it on, say so."