What thing has the highest ratio of "sounds bad" / "is bad"?
17
5
resolved Sep 14
19%
The ultraviolet catastrophe
4%
Dihydrogen monoxide
2%
Slouching
0.3%
The heat death of the universe
11%
The repugnant conclusion
0.9%
Changing a diaper
0.3%
Futarchy
9%
Assassination market
0.4%
Nuclear power
6%
La petite mort
7%
Liquid Death
0.5%
Death-doom
0.5%
Brutal death metal
0.5%
Betting on the results of the war in Ukraine
10%
The end of history
0.6%
The Sadistic Conclusion
7%
Quantum Supremacy
7%
Viral Market
4%
Death of the Author

Resolves to my opinion of what thing has the scariest-sounding name relative to how bad it actually is.

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Also thanks @MartinRandall for turning this "fun" question into a deep philosophical quandary. :P

In retrospect I wish I had left myself the option of choosing multiple, as I think several of these are about equally good. Whoops.

answered
Viral Market

@Sinclair What is a viral market?

answered
The Sadistic Conclusion
bought Ṁ1

Average Utilitarians Represent!

answered
Slouching

I think leaning back, almost sliding off of your desk chair is actually a very optimal position

Congrats on inadvertently making a market on best names for your new rock band.

answered
Liquid Death

But maybe in a world where it's a really bad disease all the serious people who would push for its rename would be puddles. So it's so scary it's scary.

answered
Liquid Death

@MichaelWheatley Yes, the disease of this name would be renamed to Novel Liquidation Disease and called NLD in the media to avoid "causing alarm".

answered
Liquid Death

@MartinRandall I dunno. This and the metal genres sound like someone who's trying to sound extreme, rather than a name that would actually be given to something scary.

answered
Liquid Death

@Multicore Should at least beat dihydrogen monoxide.

answered
The repugnant conclusion
bought Ṁ10

@MartinRandall That's a pretty compelling argument. Bumping this up the list as it at least deserves to be one of the top contenders.

answered
The repugnant conclusion
@horse small goodness per person, large total goodness. But I did phrase it incorrectly.
answered
The repugnant conclusion
@MartinRandall I thought it was the smallest amount of goodness possible through utilitarianism. The conclusion is something like "10001 people with 0.0001 utils is better than 1 person with 1 util", right?
answered
The ultraviolet catastrophe
bought Ṁ5
@IsaacKing lol
answered
The repugnant conclusion
bought Ṁ1
Under utilitarian logic, the conclusion is the smallest possible amount of badness and thus the ratio is the largest possible ratio.