I would argue that it is not a pipe dream, but does require a paradigm shift in how the world views software. For whatever historical reasons, software has alm

I would argue that it is not a pipe dream, but does require a paradigm shift in how the world views software. For whatever historical reasons, software has almost always been engineered shoddily as compared to other money-critical or life-critical forms of engineering. Companies (and governments) aren't willing to make the investments of time, personnel, expertise, and money that are required to create secure, safe code. Insecurity and vulnerability is the norm even among supposedly security-conscious organizations. We could discuss the root causes all day (companies rarely face full consequences of poor security, etc), but part of the problem is denial. Few are willing to acknowledge how much work it would be to create truly secure code. Instead they settle for being better than most competitors. However, this does not mean that really, actually secure code is impossible, just that we should (a) admit the scope of the challenge, (b) start taking steps toward that goal (like investing more in research).