Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Sum-threshold attacks, published by TsviBT on September 8, 2023 on LessWrong.

How do you affect something far away, a lot, without anyone noticing?

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The frog's lawsuit

Attorney for the defendant: "So, Mr. Frog. You allege that my client caused you grievous bodily harm. How is it that you claim he harmed you?"

Frog: "Ribbit RIBbit ribbit."

Attorney: "Sir..."

Frog: "Just kidding. Well, I've been living in a pan for the past two years. When I started, I was the picture of health, and at first everything was fine. But over the course of the last six months, something changed. By last month, I was in the frog hospital with life-threatening third-degree burns."

Attorney: "And could you repeat what you told the jury about the role my client is alleged to have played in your emerging medical problems?"

Frog: "Like I said, I don't know exactly. But I know that when my owner wasn't away on business, every day he'd do something with the stove my pan was sitting on. And then my home would seem to be a bit hotter, always a bit hotter."

Attorney: "Your owner? You mean to say..."

Judge: "Let the record show that Mr. Frog is extending his tongue, indicating the defendant, Mr. Di'Alturner."

Attorney: "Let me ask you this, Mr. Frog. Is it right to say that my client - - your owner - - lives in an area with reasonably varied weather? It's not uncommon for the temperature to vary by ten degrees over the course of the day?"

Frog: "True."

Attorney: "And does my client leave windows open in his house?"

Frog: "He does."

Attorney: "So I wonder, how is it that you can tell that a slight raise in temperature that you experience - - small, by your own admission - - how can you be sure that it's due to my client operating his stove, and not due to normal fluctuations in the ambient air temperature?"

Frog: "I can tell because of the correlation. I tend to feel a slight warming after he's twiddled the dial."

Attorney: "Let me rephrase my question. Is there any single instance you can point to, where you can be sure - - beyond a reasonable doubt - - that the warming was due to my client's actions?"

Frog: "Ah, um, it's not that I'm sure that any one increase in temperature is because he turned the dial, but..."

Attorney: "Thank you. And would it be fair to say that you have no professional training in discerning temperature and changes thereof?"

Frog: "That would be accurate."

Attorney: "And are you aware that 30% of frogs in your state report spontaneous slight temperature changes at least once a month?"

Frog: "But this wasn't once a month, it was every day for weeks at a ti - - "

Attorney: "Sir, please only answer the questions I ask you. Were you aware of that fact?"

Frog: "No, I wasn't aware of that, but I don't see wh - - "

Attorney: "Thank you. Now, you claim that you were harmed by my client's actions, which somehow put you into a situation where you became injured."

Frog: "¡I have third degree burns all ov - - "

Attorney: "Yes, we've seen the exhibits, but I'll remind you to only speak in response to a question I ask you. What I'd like to ask you is this: Why didn't you just leave the frying pan? If you were, as you allege, being grievously injured, wasn't that enough reason for you to remove yourself from that situation?"

Frog: "I, I didn't notice that it was happening at the time, each change was so subtle, but..."

Attorney: "Thank you. As your counsel would have advised you, the standard for grievous bodily harm requires intent. Now are we really expected to conclude, beyond a reasonable doubt, that my client intended to cause you harm, via a method that you didn't even notice? That even though you can't point to so much as a single instance where my ...