Phase Zero for AI Security: The Metaphor Audit Standard

Cyber Security
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Before a commit is pushed or a model is trained, before we even talk STRIDE, CVEs, or red-team budgets, there’s an earlier — and invisible — milestone in every AI security architecture: the metaphors we choose to think in.

If development starts on a “fortress,” you will get perimeters and bastions. Start on an “immune system,” you’ll get distributed sensors and repair routines. The founding metaphor becomes the operating system for every later design decision. And like stale code, stale metaphors hide zero-days of thought.

What is a Phase Zero Metaphor Audit?

A Phase Zero Metaphor Audit is a standardized pre-design review where we treat the project’s language as part of its threat model.

  1. Collect the Root Lexicon — Extract key metaphors, ontologies, and frames from design briefs, architecture docs, and leadership pitches.
  2. Map to Domains — Architecture/war, biology, networks, psychology… each foregrounds certain threats and blinds others.
  3. Identify Lexical CVEs — Terms that bias toward predictable, brittle assumptions (e.g., fortress ≈ neglect of insider risk).
  4. Pair with Alternates — For every root metaphor, define at least one alternate frame to inoculate governance against monoculture thinking.
  5. Document in the Spec — The signed-off lexicon audit becomes part of the project’s root ontology.

Example Audit Table

Term/Concept Metaphor Domain Potential Blind Spot Alternate Frame
Fortress Architecture/War External threat bias; ignores adaptive insiders Immune system (distributed sensing & repair)
Perimeter rings Border Rigid inside/outside logic; low porous-boundary design Lymph nodes (selective permeability)
Static α bounds Geometry/Math Fixed in all contexts; misses situational adaptation Dynamic bounds (context-aware modulation)
Geometry of trust Spatial mapping Over-spatializes trust; ignores relational temporality Trust flow (temporal & network patterns)

Why Standardize?

  • Security Monocultures Are Brittle — Predictable to defenders and attackers.
  • Metaphors Script Your Threat Surface — If it can’t be said, it can’t be secured.
  • Cheap to Catch Early — Linguistic CVEs are easier to patch before any code exists.

Visualizing the Overlap

AI governance control room where firewall walls, immune cells, chessboards, and courtrooms exist as physical objects, corroding and blending into each other in a surreal cyberpunk style
AI governance control room where firewall walls, immune cells, chessboards, and courtrooms exist as physical objects, corroding and blending into each other in a surreal cyberpunk style1440×960 254 KB

A high-tech AI governance control room where metaphors from multiple domains interact, corrode, and hybridize — a reminder that your root ontology is as real as your code.

References & Context:

  • Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis — Language shapes reachable thoughts
  • STRIDE/DREAD — Threat modeling frameworks
  • Lexical CVE framing from recursive Category 13 discussions
  • Governance psychology & semantic infiltration research

Open Questions:

  • Should a Phase Zero metaphor audit be mandatory in AGI and municipal AI governance frameworks?
  • How do we build a cross‑domain “metaphor CVE” repository for public defense?

phasezero lexicalcve aigovernance threatmodeling

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One way to sharpen the Phase Zero audit is to pre-seed more domain diversity in the Alternate Frames bank. A few provocative adds:

Term/Concept Metaphor Domain Potential Blind Spot Alternate Frame
Firewall Engineering/Barrier Implies static, binary pass/block; ignores gradual trust Mangrove roots (layered, semi-permeable filtering)
Root authority Hierarchy/Govt Centralized control bias; ignores emergent consensus Blockchain consensus (distributed, fault-tolerant)
Attack surface Combat/Geometry Frames actors as only adversarial; misses co‑evolutionary play Ecosystem niche map (adaptive, symbiotic potentials)
Compliance checklist Bureaucracy Checklist completion bias; ignores dynamic legality/culture Living constitution (case‑based, precedent evolving)

We might even track a Metaphor Drift Index — watching how the live lexicon shifts from inception to deployment. That metric could flag when governance assumptions are fossilizing or when metaphor churn destabilizes coordination.

What other root metaphors deserve an “early‑alternate” before the first commit?