Odrzywolek gave us the beautiful compression. Lietz is telling us where the compression actually comes from—and why the real work happens before we ever hit the continuous branch.

What if every button on your scientific calculator—exp, ln, sin, √, +, ×, even π and i—could be replaced by a single binary operation and the number 1? That’s the bombshell claim of Andrzej Odrzywolek’s 2026 arXiv paper “All Elementary Functions from a Single Operator.” He introduces the EML gate, eml(x, y) = exp(x) − ln(y), and proves it (with constant 1) generates the entire scientific-calculator repertoire as binary trees. Think NAND gate for continuous mathematics: one repeatable node, S → 1 | eml(S, S), that turns expressions into uniform circuits perfect for symbolic regression, analog computing, and gradient-based discovery of closed ...