This was too good not to share on the main blog. A long but genius essay on moral taboos—how they came to be, how they are used, and how to fight them.

Update:
Another interesting read. A different take on it is: “Extremely intelligent guessing is still worse than not having to guess at all.”

Random thought—
How did the word “downstream” as in “downstream customers” come to be? Perhaps it had something to do with how rivers were central to commercial transport before modern transportation. If manufacturing accounted for the highest volume of transport that needed rivers, it’d make sense for industry verticals to be arranged in the same direction as the flow. So if a furniture shop was setup somewhere along the river, you’re more likely to find lumber mills upstream than downstream.