Cannot be optimized away? No. Will not be optimized away? Sure. Given: verySilly :: Int -> (a -> a) verySilly = go . abs . toInteger where

Cannot be optimized away? No. Will not be optimized away? Sure. Given: verySilly :: Int -> (a -> a) verySilly = go . abs . toInteger where go n | n == 1 = id | even n = go (n `div` 2) | otherwise = go (n * 3 + 1) On a 64-bit platform, `verySilly 976532468728515` has type (a -> a) and will eventually terminate (the hailstone sequence is known to enter the 4-2-1 loop on all inputs that small), but no compiler is going to prove it. In theory it could happen. In practice it won't, especially when you consider that there are countless problems you could substitute in.