Keeping ourselves cool, while indoors or outside, has been a high human priority for as long as we’ve been around. Systems for conditioning our inside air date back at least to the Roman times. The ancient and advanced Persian civilization made good efforts toward achieving indoor comfort as well. Before our vehicles had air conditioners, and before we even had vehicles, people going outside their cool shady dwellings needed to adapt their clothing to maximize personal comfort. In baking hot, dry desert climates, people adopted robes. Robes keep the sun off the skin and keep the person under the robes at least less hot. They still do that today in the lands of the burning sands. In the damp, sweaty tropics, wearing little or even no clothing was a popular way to beat the heat. And that works, too, and is still very popular. We still do that in the hot, humid tropics, if we have the choice. But most of us spend our lives in business casual, at best, clothing not optional. I guess we’re still going to need air conditioners, at home, at work, and in between.
