For the curious, I strongly recommend this Long Now talk by Edward Slingerland: https://longnow.org/ideas/drinking-10000-years-intoxication-and-civilization/ h

For the curious, I strongly recommend this Long Now talk by Edward Slingerland: https://longnow.org/ideas/drinking-10000-years-intoxication-and-civilization/ https://longnow.org/ideas/drinking-10000-years-intoxication-... In short: it's about why we continue to drink despite the obvious costs. There are, as it turns out, some non-obvious benefits as well.