Odysseus Binds Himself to the Mast

Before passing the Sirens, Odysseus has his crew stop their ears with wax and bind him to the mast. Once the song compromises his judgment, they refuse his pleas for release and maintain the precommitted control plan.

The design assumes adversarial input can compromise the decision-maker. It separates exposure from action authority, combines independent safeguards, and keeps enforcement outside the compromised component’s control.

Odysseus is a human under supernatural persuasion, not an AI receiving a literal prompt injection; the analogy is about precommitment and control architecture.