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> While it sounds miserable to be without A/C, it can be argued that we are even more miserable now because we have it. Speak for yourself. I think that those
by evan_ 13y ago
> While it sounds miserable to be without A/C, it can be argued that we are even more miserable now because we have it.
Speak for yourself. I think that those hundreds of people sleeping outside where it's just a few degrees cooler would probably have given just about anything for air conditioning. They weren't doing it because it was fun, they were sleeping outside because it was the best way they had to try to avoid dropping dead from heat stroke. That's why A/C is used[1], not to distance you from your neighbors.
> Something inside me greatly desires a life like that.
You can sleep outside on the ground in a big group any time you want. Most cities have hundreds of people who do that every day. I think any one of them would gladly trade it for an air conditioned room with a bed.
[1] http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-12-22/national/36017013_1_home-air-premature-deaths-gas-emissions http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-12-22/national/36017...
- Zelphyr 13y agoCannot up-vote enough.
- nutjob123 13y ago> You can sleep outside on the ground in a big group any time you want. Most cities have hundreds of people who do that every day. I think any one of them would gladly trade it for an air conditioned room with a bed. Most parks I know have rules against entering past dusk, enforced with ticketing. In NYC there are closed gates which would physically prevent you from entering many parks.
- evan_ 13y agoI've only been to NYC a couple times but I remember seeing a lot of homeless people. I'm sure that there are resources you could use to find out where the unsheltered homeless population in NYC sleeps, if it isn't in the parks.
- nir 13y agoSome sleep in the trees: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/nyregion/13trees.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/nyregion/13trees.html?page... Must be cooler there than on the ground.. Having lived through a few NYC summers, they can really be the worst. Not only it gets incredibly humid and hot, there's at least one serious rainstorm each week to drench you. I always found summer in NYC is much worse than winter.
- dpcan 13y agoRight, but my point was not intended to be specifically about A/C, but innovations that keep us from physically being with each other in general. You might argue that we know our neighbors MUCH less now because we don't see them nearly as often. Being forced out of our homes - in some cases to prevent ourselves from literally dying from the heat - may have made people closer and friendlier with one another. Of course I don't want to be in deadly heat - but I also wish I knew my neighbors betters, and for the anti-social, like myself, being forced to be around them may have helped.