paper · v0.1 · 2026-04-27

If you can't kill it, it might actually be good.

The Compression Falsification Ladder is a system for honestly testing compression ideas — with pre-registered rules, trap cells, and Lean kill theorems. Instead of trying to prove your method works, try to prove it doesn't.

5
Killed rungs
across G₀–G₇
1
Modest constructive
(G₃, q≈16–32)
2
Open / gated
(G₄ task-cond, G₇)
14 / 18
Lean theorems proved
(4 sorry)

The Problem

Why compression research is full of false positives

Cherry-picking

You tested 5 models and only reported the best one.

Metric shopping

Perplexity looked bad, so you switched to accuracy.

Hidden fine-tuning

You said “post-training,” but quietly fine-tuned for 3 epochs.

No negative controls

You never checked whether a random method does just as well.

The Ladder

Eight rungs. Most are killed. The point is the kills.

Each rung is an increasingly ambitious compression claim. Climbing happens by surviving honest tests, not by declaring victory. Below: every rung, its current status, and the empirical or analytical evidence that put it there.

G0

Orthogonal/permutation Tucker gauge

Free orthogonal regauge

KILLED
G1

Bounded non-orthogonal gauges

Reclassified — spectrum diagnostic only

RECLASSIFIED
G2

Cross-mode reshaping

Free Tucker on layer × expert × hidden

KILLED
G3

Routed effective weights

Per-route weight aggregation

CONSTRUCTIVE
G4

Route/task-conditional circuits

Task-conditional rank reduction

OPEN
G5

Linear-feature causal circuits

LRH-implied compression

KILLED
G6

Router unary low-rank

Single-router rank reduction

KILLED
G7

Pair/hot-set co-occurrence

Pairwise router certificate (gated)

OPEN

Browse the full ladder →

The 5 Gates

Five tests every compression claim must pass

Think of these as five security checkpoints at an airport. Skip any one and something dangerous gets through.

Read the gate definitions →

The 4 Traps

Automatic lie detectors

Trap cells are cheap, embedded checks that catch self-deception before a paper gets written.

Try the τ calculator →

Take the ladder for a walk