When writing that blog entry I had a vague feeling of being somewhat unclear and not managing to deliver my line of thinking in a crisp and clear way. So, here I think that in your comment you manage to re-phrase some of the central ideas in a pretty neat way =)

When reading those scientific studies about biases, I felt that there is something little off with their focus on "sources of error in our reasoning." Historically speaking, I understand it, as especially in our western tradition there was this strong assumption that human soul is entirely rational - and then the scientist have been surprised to find how often we actually fail with rational reasoning, and that it happens also for highly educated people. So they had to find out why is that. Hence the focus on "errors".

But to me it seems that those pre-cognitive heuristics are essential for us to function in this world. They are neither "bad" nor "good", they are just natural and necessary tools of survival. Otherwise the mere amount on sensory data in any given moment would just paralyze us, as the rational apparatus is not effective enough to process all the data that quickly. In order to make some sense of the stream of sensory data, in order to navigate the world and in order to take sensible action, we just need those heuristical processes running inside our minds.

No problem with that. So the question is to be aware of that. And to accept the fact that we are running on heuristically produced estimations, interpretations and guesses about the world. Once we accept that, there isn't that much reason to get so furious about other people having different kind of guesses and interpretations. Of course here the trap might be falling into endless relativism. But I think it is the world which keeps us going - if we see our biased guesses and interpretations as tools of navigating the world, then we can actually have a meaningful discussion with other people who have slightly different tools. Instead of fighting who is right and who is wrong, we can just discuss and share experiences, to learn how others use their tools, and maybe to adopt some new stuff for ourselves, or to invent some new modifications for our existing tools.

Then, the problem is that you can't have that kind of neutral and friendly discussion with other tribes, if they are somewhat fundamental about them being right and others being bad and delusional. That kind of tribal mentality leads to the kind of orwellian world, yes. So, they way I see it, the solution need not be abandoning all of the tribal identification. But maybe to find a more relaxed attitude towards ones own tribal identity, and the heuristical tools and moral intuitions associated with it.