[Off-topic] Why I Think Hot Countries Are Generally Less Developed Than Colder Countries
People often talk about colonialism, politics, or geography when explaining why hotter countries tend to be less developed. But there's a deeper, physics-based reason that often gets overlooked:
Thermodynamics silently shapes civilization.
In an isolated system, entropy tends to increase.
Heat is energy. Entropy is how spread out and disordered that energy becomes.
- Hot air = air molecules moving fast
- Cold air = air molecules moving slowly
When we add energy to a system, molecules move more freely.
So heating cold air aligns with entropy. It’s the direction nature already wants to go.
- Making air colder = fighting entropy
- Making air hotter = going with entropy
In layman’s terms:
The natural tendency of a room is to let air molecules move faster (get warmer).
Slowing those molecules down (cooling the room) goes against that tendency and takes continuous effort.
🔧 The Implication
Cooling a room in a tropical country requires:
- Active systems : air conditioning, fans, chilled water, insulation
- Continuous energy input : to maintain a low-entropy (cool) state
- Constant upkeep : heat and humidity wear everything down
Heating a room in a cold climate can be done passively:
- Insulation
- Body heat
- Sunlight
- A single bonfire
Once heat is added, it stays. Keeping warm is relatively easy.
But cooling down? That needs machines, electricity, and maintenance or you suffer.
A poor person in Canada can survive winter with blankets and soup.
A poor person in a 40°C slum might die from heatstroke.
🏛️ The Civilization Factor
Humans learned to fight cold the moment we discovered fire.
But we didn’t learn how to fight heat until the 20th century with the invention of modern air conditioning.
In cold climates:
A cup of tea, a wool blanket, a sealed cabin and you're fine.
You decide how hot you want it. Just light the fire.
In hot climates:
Even the rivers are warm. There’s no relief.
It’s thermodynamic hell, and only recently have we had the tools to resist it.
🧠 The Takeaway
This isn't just about comfort. It's about survival, labor efficiency, and civilizational momentum.
Hotter regions:
- Require more energy just to function
- Suffer faster infrastructure decay
- Force people to spend effort just staying alive, not advancing
Heat works against you. Cold simply waits.
Hot countries aren’t behind due to culture or laziness.
They’re behind because the physics of heat and entropy made progress harder from the very beginning.