Abstract
This essay is about the cultural as well as the technical origins of society's large-scale conditioning of air. It argues that by the application of semiotic and anthropological analysis, it is possible to use air-conditioning as a particularly efficient instrument with which to investigate some basic features of modern American culture. The essay argues that air-conditioning is essentially like an act of potlatch of which modern American quick food cuisine is another important example. It also suggests that the desire for air-conditioned air is addictive, with important consequences in moral and political philosophy as well as for the strategic minimum energy requirements of the Republic. The essay concludes by suggesting that the same cultural and technological roots in American history which created the addiction to coolth also contain the means to move on to cleverer, more environment-friendly “post-coolth” technologies.
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