--- --- # How Air Conditioning Made Us Productive — But Lazy by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jul 5, 2016 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jul 5, 2016 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**What air conditioning tells us about innovation — and laziness.**](http://tedium.co/2016/06/28/air-conditioning-architecture-problems/) By Ernie Smith in Tedium **2\.** [**Scientists are building a cyborg-insect to sniff out bombs.**](https://source.wustl.edu/2016/06/engineers-use-cyborg-insects-biorobotic-sensing-machines/) By Beth Miller at Washington University in St. Louis **3\.** [**Can we re-wire convicts to stay out of jail?**](http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/06/26/483091741/to-help-a-criminal-go-straight-help-him-change-how-he-thinks) By Jack Bush at NPR **4\.** [**How to reinvent high school with neuroscience and human-centered design.**](http://ssir.org/articles/entry/re%5Fdesigning%5Famerican%5Fhigh%5Fschools%5Ffor%5Fthe%5F21st%5Fcentury) By Patrick Cook-Deegan in the Stanford Social Innovation Review **5\.** [**What if the terrorists are already here?**](http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/07/america-terrorism-national-security/489872/) By Uri Friedman in the Atlantic  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ How Air Conditioning Made Us Productive — But Lazy ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4393014/air-conditioning-effects/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4393014/air-conditioning-effects/"},"headline":"How Air Conditioning Made Us Productive — But Lazy","datePublished":"2016-07-05T16:00:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:48.184Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4393014/air-conditioning-effects/","keywords":["Innovation","High School","Terrorism","Therapy","Air conditioning"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4393014/air-conditioning-effects/","name":"How Air Conditioning Made Us Productive — But Lazy"}}]}] ```