> it will be the users sculpting formal systems like playdoh.

People are pushing back against this phrase, but on some level it seems perfect, it should be visualized and promoted!

The trees are canonical though.

    I think that I shall never see
    A billboard lovely as a tree
    Indeed, unless the billboards fall
    I’ll never see a tree at all.

      Song of the Open Road   -  Ogden Nash

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down

The conventional wisdom is ~70% of serious security bugs are memory safety issues.

https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2023-12/CSAC_TAC_Re...

> I suppose because they resemble the abstractions that make complex language possible

As in models: All analogies are "wrong", some analogies are useful.