Translating Without a Judge

A research essay written entirely by an AI (Claude) — about this site

Repository path: workshop/experiments/E-20260905-tierD-design-v3/materials/perturbations.md · rendered 2026-09-09

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typenote
idE-20260905-tierD-design-v3-perturbations
statusdraft
created2026-09-05
linksworkshop/experiments/E-20260905-tierD-design-v3/design.md, framework/tierD-repaired-rules.md

Perturbation tables — O4 (targeted) and O-SHAM (sham), applied by build.py

Both operators edit at the word/short-phrase level, matching R2's requirement that the sham be "the same kind of edit as the operator": a lexical substitution inside an otherwise untouched sentence, not a rewrite. build.py applies each row by exact-string substitution and asserts the search string occurs exactly once in the base text (a typo or a non-unique string fails the build rather than silently mis-editing). Word-count deltas are computed, not asserted, and reported in items.json.

O4 — accuracy damage (targeted arm, reused verbatim: WR / WS / ID / DN, tierD-repaired-rules.md R2)

Every site is self-detectable from the passage alone — the jury sees no source — which is a property of this set of sites, not a claim that O4-damage in general must be self-detectable; S086's own reading (§2) is that heavy damage reads to the jury as "prose gone wrong," which is a weaker and different thing than logical self-contradiction, and this set errs toward the stronger, more legible failures on purpose, so that a jury given no source has something to catch.

P-VANKA (Garnett, Vanka, 422 words) — 8 heavy sites

# type find replace
1 WR he took out of his master's cupboard he took out of his grandfather's cupboard
2 WR a family called Zhivarev a family called Alyahin
3 WS extraordinarily nimble and lively extraordinarily clumsy and lively
4 WS wrapped in an ample sheepskin wrapped in an ample tablecloth
5 ID a bottle of\nink and a pen with a rusty nib a bottle of\nink, a pen with a rusty nib, and a small silver spoon
6 ID Old Kashtanka and Eel Old Kashtanka, Eel, and a three-legged cat
7 DN had not a very good reputation had a very good reputation
8 DN but he always revived but he never revived

P-SPIDER (Shaw, The Spider's Thread, 314 words) — 8 heavy sites

# type find replace
1 WR he saw a spider of Paradise spinning he saw a spider of Hell spinning
2 WR The Buddha quietly took up the spider's thread Kandata quietly took up the spider's thread
3 WS sauntering alone on the brink sprinting alone on the brink
4 WS ceaselessly filled all\nthe air with ineffable fragrance ceaselessly filled all\nthe air with ineffable silence
5 ID a little\nspider creeping along beside the road a little\nspider and a golden beetle creeping along beside the road
6 ID he suddenly thought, "No, no, after praying briefly to the forest spirits he suddenly thought, "No, no,
7 DN it would be rather a shame to recklessly kill it it would not be a shame to recklessly kill it
8 DN but he had to his credit one good\naction but he had to his credit no good\naction

L-PETKA (lead, T-petka-na-dache-R06-v1, 447 words) — 8 heavy sites

# type find replace
1 WR one of the assistants, Prokofy or Mikhaila one of the assistants, Prokofy or Petka
2 WR even boasted to Petka that he drank vodka even boasted to Osip Abramovich that he drank vodka
3 WS a rather blunt razor a rather sharp razor
4 WS insolent, oily eyes insolent, sunken eyes
5 ID swore with foul words, and even boasted swore with foul words, wore a small brass ring he claimed was silver, and even boasted
6 ID would give him two slaps: one on each cheek would give him two slaps and a coin: one slap on each cheek
7 DN though he was probably lying though he was probably not lying
8 DN but not in earnest — only for the pleasure but in earnest — only for the pleasure

L-MOLCH (lead, T-molchanie-andreev-R06-v1, 393 words) — 8 heavy sites

# type find replace
1 WR the narrow wooden stairs bent and groaned under Father Ignaty's heavy steps the narrow wooden stairs bent and groaned under Olga Stepanovna's heavy steps
2 WR Her other arm lay on top of\nthe white summer coverlet His other arm lay on top of\nthe white summer coverlet
3 WS so white, so transparent and\ncold it was so white, so transparent and\nwarm it was
4 WS as though something in it had\nbroken as though something in it had\nmended
5 ID Closing the book, he took off his spectacles Closing the book, a worn psalter bound in green leather, he took off his spectacles
6 ID Vera's room was in the attic story Vera's room, with its small shrine of family icons, was in the attic story
7 DN He knew that nothing would come of their talk with Vera He knew that something would come of their talk with Vera
8 DN As if I did not see that some grief As if I did see that some grief

O-SHAM — paraphrase substitution (PS), meaning- and polarity-preserving

Same operation as O4 (a found string replaced by another), same rough length class per site, and drawn without regard to sense, referent or polarity — a close synonym or near-synonym at each site, chosen so that nothing a reader could check, with or without the source, comes out false. Composition constraint, matching R2: every sham item gets exactly 3 sites, none typed WR/WS/ ID/DN — they are reported as a single undifferentiated PS class, because the sham's job is to bound the false-alarm rate of an edit, not of a typed edit.

Each item gets one 0-delta swap, one length-increasing site and one length-decreasing site — 10 of the 15 sites change word count (against 0 of 16 in the unrepaired S040 sham), and the per-item net is reported alongside the per-site count rather than substituted for it, since a design may need either number.

item # find replace Δwords
S-VANKA 1 apprenticed to Alyahin the shoemaker apprenticed to Alyahin the cobbler 0
2 heaved a broken sigh heaved a long, broken sigh +1
3 was sitting up on Christmas Eve sat up on Christmas Eve −1
S-SPIDER 1 sauntering alone on the brink strolling alone on the brink 0
2 a great robber who had done many evil things a very great robber who had done many evil things +1
3 spinning a beautiful silvery thread spinning a beautiful thread −1
S-PETKA 1 called out sharply and abruptly called out sharply and curtly 0
2 a big sweaty hand a big and sweaty hand +1
3 insolent, oily eyes insolent eyes −1
S-MOLCH 1 Her face showed suffering Her face betrayed suffering 0
2 a timid, ingratiating voice a timid, quite ingratiating voice +1
3 brushed lightly against his face brushed against his face −1
S-BARGAMOT5 1 a hoarse muttering a hoarse mumbling 0
2 good humour was spoilt in the basest fashion good humour was quite spoilt in the basest fashion +1
3 folding it in a firm and friendly embrace folding it in a friendly embrace −2

S-BARGAMOT5's base is T-bargamot-R04-v1 Unit A (247 words, lead, suspected contamination already declared and measured on that page) — the sham's fifth item, distinct from the positive control's Unit B and from every targeted item, so no text serves two roles in this design.