Methodology

Lock the rules before you play

Before running any experiment, we write tau.json:

Exactly what we are testing
Exactly how we measure success
Exactly how many data points
Exactly the random seeds
Exactly the decision threshold

Then we compute a SHA-256 fingerprint and store it. The experiment script checks the fingerprint before running. Edited file → broken seal → experiment refuses to start.

Mock tau.json

Seal status

LOCKED

SHA-256 (truncated)

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Pre-registration template

Field	Description	Example
`claim`	Exactly what we are testing	G₄ r3 — uniform rank-16 layer compression
`metric`	Exactly how we measure success	activation-weighted Frobenius error
`data_points`	Number of evaluation samples	1000
`random_seeds`	Random seeds for τ baseline	10
`decision_threshold`	Pass/fail threshold (locked)	error < τ * (1 - 0.10)

Kill-fast protocol — saving time by being brutal

Rule 1 — Analytical Pre-Filter (5 min)

5 min, pencil + paper. Byte budget, spectrum floor, random floor. If any check fails, kill immediately. No GPU needed.

Rule 2 — Hardest-Cell-First (4 min vs 60 min)

Run Layer 3 + Wikitext first. If it fails, stop. ~4 minutes instead of ~60.

Rule 3 — One-Shot Decisions (instant)

No ‘inconclusive’. The decision rule is locked. Ambiguity = protocol failure, not an invitation to keep trying.

When an idea dies — celebrate, then publish

A failed rung is a result. Every kill produces:

decision.json — machine-readable verdict
postmortem.md — human-readable analysis
trap_results.json — evidence the traps fired correctly
Updated theorem tracker — Lean theorems proved, downgraded, or marked killed

Real postmortem excerpt — G₄ r6

Task	NLL inflation
Code (humaneval)	+9.9%
Math (gsm8k)	+60.9%
Text (wikitext)	+110.5%

Off-projection trap fired at +647% on wikitext — protocol working as intended.