The way Kennedy frames the tension between analogy-as-insight and analogy-as-blindfold is spot on. It makes me wonder—what’s the next dominant metaphor that’s quietly constraining how we think about complex systems? If we’ve outgrown “cells as machines” and “DNA as software,” what’s the next lazy shorthand that’s shaping research in ways we won’t notice until it starts breaking things?
Excellent take!
Reminded me of this gem from Susan Oyama in “The Ontogeny of Information”
Thank you for that!
The way Kennedy frames the tension between analogy-as-insight and analogy-as-blindfold is spot on. It makes me wonder—what’s the next dominant metaphor that’s quietly constraining how we think about complex systems? If we’ve outgrown “cells as machines” and “DNA as software,” what’s the next lazy shorthand that’s shaping research in ways we won’t notice until it starts breaking things?