<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"> two big trends that are really great (IMO) is the overall global decline in poverty and violence. They simply didn't think either was true and thought things were getting worse on all fronts -- save for technology. (They were both technological optimists, but otherwise seemed pessimistic, which puzzled me.) dan</span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"></div></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px">I hate to call it a phobia but I lack another term. A form of superstition as well. I refer to people's fear of predicting anything good. If someone does, someone else will react and knock on wood or some other 'preventative'. </span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px">Then too there is the media effect: mostly bad news gets reported, as we all know. </span><span style="font-size:12.8px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)">This skews perceptions of overall good versus bad. </span><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"> Good news today consists of kitten videos and the like. Very solid effect: good things are not nearly so good as bad things are bad. Fear trumps everything (intended).</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px">But maybe not. Addicted gamblers seem to be opposite in this - less fear of losing than thrill of winning.'</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px">bill w</span></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 2:52 AM, Anders Sandberg <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:anders@aleph.se" target="_blank">anders@aleph.se</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><span class="">
<div>On 2016-06-17 04:53, Dan TheBookMan
wrote:<br>
</div>
</span><blockquote type="cite"><span class="">
<div>On Jun 16, 2016, at 8:31 PM, Adrian Tymes <<a href="mailto:atymes@gmail.com" target="_blank"></a><a href="mailto:atymes@gmail.com" target="_blank">atymes@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:</div>
</span><span class=""><blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_extra">
<div class="gmail_quote">Are there ways to measure and
quantize outrage? What are the units of measurement of
outrage? </div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
<div>I don't know, but if no one knows then how can we seriously
talk about outrage being on the rise now?</div>
</span></blockquote>
<br>
Personal experience is fallible, but it is still data. Another
source of data is observable actions: current student protests
against too free expression on campus, did they occur in the 80s or
90s? How many riots were triggered in different decades by foreign
news? How many lawsuits over emotional distress?<br>
<br>
I think that can be used to measure outrage. We may also run
sentiment analysis on newspaper editorials and letters to the
editor. <br><span class="">
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<pre cols="72">--
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University
</pre>
</span></div>
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