> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.protein.xyz/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # A State Of Thermocracy - URL: https://www.protein.xyz/a-state-of-thermocracy/ - Published: 2026-10-09T10:58:44.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-09T12:01:44.000Z - Description: The psychological, sensual and socio-economic power of heat. Featuring Dyson, Vyrao and Headline Newds. - Author: Protein - Tags: SEEDS It’s October and the cool autumn air has finally descended on London. The early skies are dull and perfect. The drab kind of English mornings you remember getting ready for school in: the hot shower savoured as your sleepy mind defogs, the artificial light of the kitchen feeling especially bright, the sips of steaming tea slowly awakening your mind and body. On days like these, it can be easy to forget the brutal heat that engulfed our lives just weeks before. But it’s still there. Maybe not today, maybe not in your corner of the world. But it’s there. For a large stretch of this year, heat has been the main, unavoidable topic of conversation, so it only felt right that it’s also the topic of our upcoming [BRAND BRIEFING](https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN%5F8O0HLNBcT56xyt96t2DI5Q?ref=protein.xyz#/registration), which we’ll be hosting on Wednesday 14th October. --- [REGISTER](https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN%5F8O0HLNBcT56xyt96t2DI5Q?ref=protein.xyz#/registration) --- We’re going to be broaching the topic in a slightly different way, looking at the impact of heat on culture at large. Because heat is also about intensity, passion, pressure, urgency and embodiment. Sentiments we’re seeing bubble up and blaze across society, whether that be as serious as the widening political divide, as playful (or as tiresome) as the buzz of hot takes, or as sensual as the niche fragrance boom. As we outlined in the SEED [Rings of Fire](https://www.protein.xyz/rings-of-fire/), we’ve mapped out three cultural zones the BRIEFING will explore: environmental heat, discursive heat and affective heat. Throughout these, we’ll also touch on the psychological, sensual and socio-economic power of heat, which we’d like to look at a bit more closely today. ### Psyche: How Heat Is Shaping Psychology & Politics Heat and health have a long relationship. In traditional Indian medicine, Agni is the biological fire responsible for digestion and mental clarity. In the 2000s, hot yoga promised to be the secret to wellbeing. The sauna-suit workouts pushed by the Kardashians in the 2010s were favoured for trapping body heat and amping up sweat. The sauna and cold-plunge frenzy still lingers. We’ve always tried to manipulate our bodies through heat, but now we’re at its mercy. While we know heat can cause physical health problems, such as dehydration, there are also major mental health consequences, such as intensifying existing conditions and triggering new symptoms. During periods of sustained heat, NHS hospital admissions for mental health issues [rise by 10 per cent](https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2542519623001043?ref=protein.xyz). There’s also evidence that suggests heat can interfere with commonly prescribed psychiatric medications (such as antidepressants and mood stabilisers), which almost [10 million Britons](https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/medicines-used-mental-health-england/medicines-used-mental-health-england-201617-202526?ref=protein.xyz) take. Even for those who don’t live with a mental health condition, heat still affects their brains, inducing irritability, anxiety, mental fatigue and heightened cortisol. Heat doesn’t just change our body temperature, but how we think and behave. When designing systems that adapt to extreme heat, we must consider the psychological, as well as the physical. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/71/fc716215-5729-441a-bd07-e2b50bc413b1/content/images/2026/10/Dyson-HushJet-Mini-Cool-Fan-Ink-Cobalt.jpg) Dyson HushJet™ Mini Cool fan In Philip Teale’s guest piece for [Grace Blakeley’s Substack](https://graceblakeley.substack.com/) – [Air Con Capitalism](https://graceblakeley.substack.com/p/air-con-capitalism) – he examines the luxury of heat relief. Citing Dyson’s launch of its hand-held fan earlier this year – yours for a cool £99 – Teale observes how the product’s marketing is ‘aestheticising overheating through colourful art direction, breezy marketing copy and blue-steel models’. As such, ‘it re-codes cooling from a basic protection of health to an aspirational lifestyle.’ The emergence of this new cooling category, coupled with the growing understanding of heat’s impact on our brains, brings a whole new dimension to climate inequality. As Teale identifies, this disparity is something philosopher Paul B. Preciado calls ‘thermocracy’: political and social authority is proportional to the heat emitted by someone's lifestyle. For example, just one data centre in Ireland was pumped with nearly[ 5 million litres of water](https://www.thejournal.ie/how-much-water-do-irish-data-centres-use-7101544-Jul2026/?ref=protein.xyz) in a single day this summer, while the homes around it were placed on a hosepipe ban. In Preciado’s theory, those who create the most heat are also those most easily able to access cooling systems. He writes in [*Libération*](https://www.liberation.fr/idees-et-debats/opinions/vivre-ou-mourir-en-thermocratie-par-paul-b-preciado-20260627%5FQ74UIO25GBCINJAMLNIC2HWYBQ/?ref=protein.xyz): ‘In this social organisation, air conditioning is synonymous with power.’ Additionally, when we overheat, our [cognitive function falters](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147651324003142?ref=protein.xyz), impairing our ability to think critically and take action; those without access to heat relief are often too exhausted to challenge the status quo. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/71/fc716215-5729-441a-bd07-e2b50bc413b1/content/images/2026/10/Wind-Catchers-vs-Modern-AC-Banner.webp) Ancient cooling towers around a Yakhchal (Persian ice storage building) at the foot of the Towers of Silence, Yazd, Iran Universal access to air conditioning has become a political point of contention, with pressure building for UK ministers to act. Cooling systems are urgently needed in places such as schools, care homes and hospitals. But when it comes to new buildings, installing air conditioning units might seem like the simplest solution, but it isn't necessarily the smartest. Rather, the future of cooling might be rooted in ancient practices. As Yasmin Alrabiei explains in [*Atmos*](https://atmos.earth/climate-solutions/the-future-of-cooling-was-invented-thousands-of-years-ago/?ref=protein.xyz), in many regions, climate-smart structures have been around for thousands of years, and now architects are turning to these designs to inform contemporary construction. ‘The answer to rising heat may not lie in the shiny promises of techno-futurism, but in organic technologies that predate us by over 4,000 years’, Alrabiei writes. ‘Salt, clay, water, shadow, breeze – ancient sciences, far wiser than modern hubris.’ These adaptations could not only cool our bodies, but massively improve our mental wellbeing. ### Cupid: How Heat Is Shaping Sex & Sensuality There’s something about heat that ignites the primal in us. It’s so overwhelming, our basic instincts take over and we surrender to them. The bare skin, sweat and stickiness probably have something to do with it too. The language and imagery around heat are often the same as those we use to express romance and passion. The burning Thornfield Hall in *Jane Eyre* mirrors the turbulent passion between the titular character and the brooding Rochester. In *Atonement*, that sweltering summer’s day heightens already flaming emotions. ‘I love England in a heat-wave’, remarks the character Leon Tallis. ‘It’s a different country. All the rules change.’ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/71/fc716215-5729-441a-bd07-e2b50bc413b1/content/images/2026/10/Untitled-Design-A4-Landscape--1--1.png) 'Dearest Cecilia, You'd be forgiven for thinking me mad, the way I acted this afternoon. The truth is I feel rather light headed and foolish in your presence, Cee, and I don't think I can blame the heat.' Heat transforms, all bets are off, and that sense of transgression gives rise to sexual charge. Sunlight and warmth stimulate serotonin secretion, making us more attuned to sensual pleasure. Sweat contains pheromones, believed to support sexual attraction. A [study](https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/pheromones-male-perspiration-reduce-womens-tension-alter-hormone-response-regulates-menstrual-c?ref=protein.xyz) from the University of Pennsylvania and Monell Chemical Senses Center found that ‘exposure to male perspiration has marked psychological and physiological effects on women: It can brighten women’s moods, reducing tension and increasing relaxation’. Vyrao is a brand centred around neuroscience-backed perfume that enhances sensuality. Their Ludatrix perfume includes notes of spicy Sichuan pepper, musk, rose and latex, each of which is selected for its particular mood-boosting ability, be that aphrodisia, intimacy or libido. Vyrao’s sensual scents come at a time when sex rates are declining and we’re suffering from a void of sensuality in general, which we dissect in the [Pleasure Recession](https://www.protein.xyz/the-pleasure-recession/) SEED. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/71/fc716215-5729-441a-bd07-e2b50bc413b1/content/images/2026/10/Screenshot-2026-10-08-at-16.14.40.png) Ludatrix by Vyrao is said to be neuroscience-backed to enhance sensuality by 81%, energy by 56% and happiness by 57% But when heat becomes extreme, rather than amplifying our libido, it can crush it. A University of California study, ‘[Maybe Next Month? Temperature Shocks, Climate Change, and Dynamic Adjustments in Birth Rates](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29968058/?ref=protein.xyz)’,found that over an 80-year period, US birth rates were significantly lower nine months after days with temperatures above 27 degrees Celsius. In a similar vein, in ‘[Brands Sell Sunshine, but Europe Is Melting](https://semioticsisterhood.substack.com/p/brands-sell-sunshine-but-europe-is?utm%5Fsource=substack&utm%5Fcampaign=post%5Fembed&utm%5Fmedium=web&embedding%5Fpublication%5Fid=7513507)’ on the *Semiotic Sisterhood* Substack, [Carla Moss](https://semioticsisterhood.substack.com/p/brands-sell-sunshine-but-europe-is?utm%5Fsource=substack&utm%5Fcampaign=post%5Fembed&utm%5Fmedium=web&embedding%5Fpublication%5Fid=7513507) asks whether brands need to reconsider their presentation of hot and heavy summer heat: ‘The question is not whether brands should stop selling summer pleasure. It is whether they can continue relying on seasonal codes that no longer match how people are living.’ Some far bolder strategies are already emerging. Few other examples capture the growing relationship between sex and climate change better than Lily Phillips, the OnlyFans star who is using her platform to discuss the climate crisis. ‘Big Oil fucks more people every day than I can do in a lifetime’, Phillips says in a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=RXXBysi149CL-BUh&v=E%5FqTc6Keczk&feature=youtu.be&ref=protein.xyz) from [*Headline Newds*](https://yellowdotstudios.com/headlinenewds/?ref=protein.xyz), a new web series by director Adam McKay; filmmaker and communications strategist Jessica Riches; and writers and actors Bree Essrig and Megan Prescott. ‘Psychologically, we shut down when we’re facing threats to our existence’, Riches says. ‘Because this is such an unexpected messenger, in such an unexpected space – presenting climate science like this gives us the ability to bypass our brain’s defence mechanisms, so that the information might actually stick, instead of being shut out.’ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/fc/71/fc716215-5729-441a-bd07-e2b50bc413b1/content/images/2026/10/Untitled-Design-A4-Landscape--2--1-1-1.png) Margot Robbie explaining the stock market in Adam McKay's **The Big Short*; Lily Phillips explaining Big Oil in 'Body Count' by **Headline Newds*. In the series, OnlyFans creators talk to their audience about a range of climate-related topics, utilising their parasocial relationship with fans and attention-grabbing skills. In the episode ‘The Sun Is Daddy’*,* Prescott discusses solar power while removing her clothes. In ‘Big Oil Wrestling’*,* Essrigand Daze Charm, well, wrestle, while explaining how just 57 companies are responsible for 80 per cent of all carbon pollution in the last 10 years. It might sound ridiculous that in order to get people to care about the planet you have to make it sexy, but with traditional messaging no longer cutting through, *Headline Newds* is experimenting with an extreme approach to extreme heat. The weather might have turned but the heat hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s embedded in our politics, minds, bedrooms and feeds. Register for the Protein BRAND BRIEFING to find out more about how culture is heating up and how brands are responding. --- [REGISTER](https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN%5F8O0HLNBcT56xyt96t2DI5Q?ref=protein.xyz#/registration) --- | SEED | #8451 | | ---------- | -------- | | DATE | 09.10.26 | | PLANTED BY | PROTEIN |