Workshop on 3/19/2026: The Faults in Our Metaphors
Metaphors and analogies can be instrumental in advancing science and technology. Countless discoveries in a wide variety of fields have originated from sparks of insight of potential similarity between two seemingly unrelated domains. But analogy can lead us to a false conclusion as easily as to a true one, if not more so. In applying metaphors to cybersecurity, and to science and technology more broadly, three anti-patterns emerge: 1) starting with false premises about the source domain, 2) using inconsistent mappings between the source and target domains to construct an analogy, and 3) mistaking a plausible analogy for equivalence. As a result, we often develop an undue confidence in conclusions that lack any empirical, theoretical, or epistemological basis.
Alex Gantman is Vice President of Engineering for Qualcomm Technologies Inc., where he is responsible for making billions of Qualcomm-powered connected products secure and reliable against attacks. Alex leads a global team designing, implementing, and commercializing security features across dozens of product lines spanning multiple industry verticals, including Mobile, Compute, Automotive, and IoT. He has also led the establishment and evolution of a broad-scale product security practice covering thousands of product lines, tens of millions of lines of code, and tens of thousands of engineers across the globe.
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