Biology + Technology

I think that this week's MOOC Talk presentation was perfectly placed in the outline for our overall MOOC course, and I thought of this final talk as a way to think about metaliteracy moving forward into the future. I like to think of technobiophilia as a synthesis of nature and technology, and I really do think that this idea is useful in terms of embracing technology and bridging the gap between analog and digital processes.

I am really appreciative that my questions have been answered for the past few MOOC Talks, because I think that my reasoning and understanding in this course has taken a dramatic turn for the better, in comparison to the first few Talks. This week, I was a bit confused about the concept of technobiophilia, so below was the question that I sent in for this week's MOOC Talk:

"In reading the MOOC Talk website, one sentence seemed to catch my eye: "She [Sue Thomas] believes that the restorative qualities of biophilia can alleviate mental fatigue and enhance our capacity for directed attention, soothing our connected minds and easing our relationship with computers."

I understand that we like to relate technological concepts to events in nature, but I do not understand how we can hone in biophilia to ease others into a relationship with technology. Can Ms. Thomas 

 give us a few examples of how the restorative qualities of biophilia are accessed, in practice?"

Although Ms. Thomas did not answer my question directly, she made a few good points throughout her lecture. What I was truly asking, was how can technology provide a healing or restorative experience to its users. I asked this question because although I can see how technology and nature are connected, I do find that for myself and others, technology can be a bit stressful at times. As I have mentioned before in my previous post on Digital Storytelling, technology is becoming a more and more integral part of our everyday processes, even down to the most mundane of tasks. However, in an attempt to simplify processes, I find that technology makes them more difficult. I even have a few friends and family members that become quite stressed anytime they have to deal with something regarding technology. 

So this is where my question developed from. I was interested to hear Ms. Thomas' ideas on how technology itself could be restorative or healing, even for a person who is not comfortable with using it. Perhaps technology could be used for meditation or other healing practices, but how would we ease a person into this transition?