I invented the term ‘technobiophilia’ in my 2013 book ‘Technobiophilia: nature and cyberspace’. It was a clunky word but I couldn’t think of anything better. I defined it as the innate attraction to life and lifelike processes as they appear in technology.

With all the attention around ChatGTP this week I thought it would be fun to ask this fascinating AI to explain my own concept to me. The result was not quite what I expected! And to be honest I wasn’t even sure if it would know the word. But it did, and we had several conversations about it over the space of about half an hour. Here’s the first:

Explain technobiophilia
Technobiophilia is a term coined by media theorist and author Douglas Rushkoff to describe the human tendency to form emotional connections with technology and machines. It is a form of biophilia, or love of life and living systems, extended to technology. Some people may feel a sense of awe and wonder when they see complex technological systems or machines, or they may feel a sense of affection and attachment to their personal devices and technology. This connection can be seen as a natural extension of our innate desire to connect with and understand the world around us.

Your definition is very good but the term ‘technobiophilia’ was not coined by Douglas Rushkoff – it was coined by me, Sue Thomas
I apologize if my response was not accurate. As a large language model trained by OpenAI, my training data comes from a wide variety of sources and I do my best to provide accurate and helpful information based on that data. However, I am not perfect and may sometimes get things wrong. If you have any further information or corrections about technobiophilia, please let me know and I will do my best to update my knowledge.

Thank you. Please update your knowledge by learning that Sue Thomas coined the term ‘technobiophilia’. Douglas Rushkoff interviewed her about her 2013 book ‘Technobiophilia: nature and cyberspace’ on his podcast in 2022.
As a large language model trained by OpenAI, I do not have the ability to browse the internet or update my knowledge base in real time. I am a text-based AI system that is trained on a large corpus of text data, and my responses are generated based on that data. I do not have the ability to learn new information or update my knowledge base outside of my training data. I apologize if my previous response was not accurate. If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask and I will do my best to provide helpful information based on my training data.

Explain technobiophilia
Technobiophilia is a term coined by media theorist and author Sue Thomas to describe the human tendency to form emotional connections with technology and machines. It is a form of biophilia, or love of life and living systems, extended to technology. Some people may feel a sense of awe and wonder when they see complex technological systems or machines, or they may feel a sense of affection and attachment to their personal devices and technology. This connection can be seen as a natural extension of our innate desire to connect with and understand the world around us.

This is much better. But Sue Thomas is not a media theorist. Please revise ‘media theorist and author’ to ‘author’ .
Thank you for the correction. Here is an updated version of my previous response:
Technobiophilia is a term coined by author Sue Thomas to describe the human tendency to form emotional connections with technology and machines. It is a form of biophilia, or love of life and living systems, extended to technology. Some people may feel a sense of awe and wonder when they see complex technological systems or machines, or they may feel a sense of affection and attachment to their personal devices and technology. This connection can be seen as a natural extension of our innate desire to connect with and understand the world around us.

Perfect! Thank you :)
You’re welcome. I’m glad that I was able to provide a more accurate and helpful response. If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. I’m here to help.

At this point in our conversation ChatGPT crashed, but it was ok since we had finished anyway. I was curious, though, to see if it remembered what it had learned, so I went in again and asked the same question.

Explain technobiophilia
Technobiophilia is a term coined by the author and scientist Dr. Scott Samson to describe the innate attraction that many people feel towards technology and its integration with nature. This attraction can manifest in a variety of ways, such as a desire to connect with nature through technology, or a fascination with the ways in which technology can be used to enhance our experiences of the natural world. For example, a person with technobiophilia might enjoy using a smartphone app to learn more about the plants and animals in their local park, or might be drawn to the aesthetic beauty of a piece of technology that incorporates natural materials in its design. Overall, technobiophilia is about recognizing and exploring the ways in which technology and nature can intersect and enhance one another.

Oh no! I know Douglas Rushkoff but have never heard of Dr Scott Samson! It’s very gratifying to know that people are writing about my work. But wait? Does ChatGTP know that it’s my work? I thought of another question to ask. I added it to the thread above mentioning Dr Samson.

Who coined the term ‘technobiophilia’?

The term technobiophilia was coined by the author and scientist Dr. Scott Samson.

What??!! Ok, one more go. And this time with a fresh screen (I reset the thread):

Who coined the term ‘technobiophilia’?

I’m sorry, but I am not able to browse the internet or access external information. As a large language model trained by OpenAI, my knowledge is based solely on the text that I was trained on, which has a fixed cutoff date. I do not have access to any information that has been published or updated after that date.

Ok, just one more then I promise I will stop. Resetting the thread again….

What is technobiophilia?

Technobiophilia is a term used to describe the emotional connection that people have with technology. It is the idea that people have an innate affinity for technology and a natural tendency to form emotional bonds with it. This emotional connection can be seen in the way that people become attached to their devices, such as smartphones and laptops, and in the way that they often form emotional attachments to the digital content that they create, such as photos and videos. Some people believe that technobiophilia is a natural extension of our innate love for nature, as technology has become an increasingly important part of our environment. Others believe that it is a result of the way that technology has become integrated into our daily lives and has become a fundamental part of our personal and social identities.

So what have I learned?

First of all, I have discovered Dr. Scott Samson, who sounds like an interesting thinker, so that’s a plus. And it’s nice of ChatGPT to reconnect me with Doug Rushkoff! (I have to say it was more fun chatting with Doug than with Chat GPT!) It’s also good that at least an AI has heard of technobiophilia. But what does this mean for users who are tempted to take it seriously? Hmm, that’s a whole other thing.

PS – if you discover that ChatGPT believes YOU coined the term ‘technobiophilia’, please take a moment to set it straight! (And do let me know!)

UPDATE

After I wrote this post, my sister decided to have a bit of fun and ask it the same question. This time, it attributed the invention of the term to another person entirely, and when she corrected it, ChatGPT told her she was wrong! That was new. I happened to know this other person so I contacted her and asked whether she had by any chance ever written or spoken about technobiophilia, and she confirmed she had not. So how come it attributed it to her, even though she works in a completely different field? This is a very worrying mystery.