Worked sample translations

All examples in this section are newly composed for the language reference. They are not quotations from Yudkowsky. Each example supplies the intended English, Latin Yuddish, Hebrew script, and an explanatory gloss. Numbers are chosen to illustrate grammar.

13.1 Observation

English: The light is on. I assign 64:1 odds on the basis of what I see.

The perception clitic marks the route; +6 specifies confidence in the light being on. It is not the brightness of the light or the reliability of vision in every circumstance.

13.2 A report and a lower-confidence forecast

English: According to the report, Rivke will come tomorrow; I put it at 80%.

The assessor is the current speaker. Rivke is the grammatical subject, not automatically the source of the forecast.

13.3 A hypothetical and its consequence

English: Suppose my brother is alive. Conditional on that, I expect to become happy at +6 bits.

The sentence assigns no unconditional credence to the brother being alive. Compare the essay's more specific premise about believing he has been found alive.

13.4 An explicit update

English: On evidence E, I move H from −3 to +1 bits, an increase of +4 bits.

This uses the update operator. Section 10 gives a likelihood model that warrants exactly this revision.

13.5 An AI definition and an empirical claim

English: Call constructed intelligence “boyseykhl.” This AI system learns from examples, at +4 bits by inference.

The first sentence establishes terminology. The second makes a claim about a particular system. Neither sentence establishes consciousness or general intelligence.

13.6 Emotion and expression

English: I am sad, with very high introspective confidence. Oh!

The assertion reports an experience. The fil act expresses it. The cry is not assigned +10 bits; the preceding proposition is.

13.7 A wish and a forecast

English: May you be well. I expect you to recover, at +2 bits based on the report.

The first utterance expresses a hope. The second is an illustrative prediction and would require an actual evidential basis in real use. The hope itself supplies none.

13.8 A question without a manufactured prior

English: I suspend judgment on whether this system is conscious. What observation would distinguish the hypotheses?

This deliberately does not treat 50% as the automatic numerical value of having no settled judgment. The displayed adjective has a technical use; a substantive inquiry would first define the consciousness claim and the competing hypotheses.

13.9 A small exchange

A: Freg regnt es?

English: Is it raining?

B: Es ef⁺²=zog regenen.

English: It is raining, +2 bits, based on a report.

A: Tu kuk durkh dos fentster.

English: Look through the window.

B: Es ef⁺⁶=zen regenen.

English: It is raining, +6 bits, based on observation.

This exchange illustrates a change of evidence route and credence. It does not supply enough information to derive the +4-bit difference as a justified Bayes factor. A rigorous rik record would add the observation model.

13.10 Counting with invariant morphology

English: The twenty-three good models work, at +3 bits by inference.

Dos and gut do not change for plural nouns. Efn agrees with the plural subject. Tsve tsen dra counts models in decimal; oy-dra expresses +3 bits of log-odds, meaning odds of 8:1.

13.11 Case-free objects and recipients

English: I give you the good model, at +4 bits by report.

The object keeps dos gut model, and the recipient is tsu du, not an inherited dative pronoun. The reportative assessment could be based on an agreed schedule; its tense is supplied by context.

13.12 Personal zey and number

One person: Zey ef⁺³=zog morgn kumen.

Several: Zey efn⁺³=zog morgn kumen.

13.13 Local reference and subject reflexivity

The photograph is of Moyshe. Replacing zelb / זעלב with zikh / זיך makes it a photograph of Rivke. Both versions assess the combined seeing-and-photographing event. After a period, bare zelb cannot reach back into this sentence.

13.14 Modal degree and confidence vary independently

13.15 Paragraph expiration and extended scope

The two paragraphs in each display are part of the Yuddish example; commentary remains outside it.

Nem dos likht brent. Dos tsimer ef⁺³=pon hel zayn.

Dos tsimer ef⁺¹=zog hel zayn.

נעם דאָס ליכט ברענט. דאָס צימער עף⁺³=פּאָן העל זײַן.

דאָס צימער עף⁺¹=זאָג העל זײַן.

The first paragraph says “suppose the light is on; the room is bright at +3, conditionally, by inference.” Its nem expires. The second makes a +1 report-based assessment without that temporary premise. There is no automatic −2-bit update: the conditioning contexts differ.

Nem lang dos likht brent. Dos tsimer ef⁺³=pon hel zayn.

Dos tsimer ef⁺³=pon hel zayn. Oys.

נעם לאַנג דאָס ליכט ברענט. דאָס צימער עף⁺³=פּאָן העל זײַן.

דאָס צימער עף⁺³=פּאָן העל זײַן. אױס.

Here the second paragraph still assumes the light is on. Its repeated claim supplies no new evidence; it simply demonstrates persistence until oys. A period alone never turns either nem into an unconditional assertion.

13.16 Source citation and reconstructed speech