BIONICS
Bionics shares a similar military founding as many of the terms and concepts used in modern Ecology. Bionics as a concept dates back to 1958 by Major J.E. Steele. The coined term was referencing a research program at the Wight Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Bionics, "a life like system that copies some functions and characteristics of a natural system." 1, soon evolved in both Society and Ecology.
In the 1970s, as the space race inspired society along with its associated technologies, Bionics in this context moved away from its founding definition and was now understood as the merging of Biology and Electronics. Such agents for this transformation were books and television series inspired from Martin Caidin's Cyborg (1973). "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman" redefined Bionics as a direct cybernetic system between body (biology) and electronics, literal prosthetics.
Bionic Systems in Ecology, while certainly inspired by the popular social definition of bionics, see Green Cyborg, followed more closely to Major J.E Steele's definition. A notable example is Kenneth Yeang and his ecological approach to architecture through bionics. Yeang follows in the ecological idea of designing for the 'optimum survival' for humans; stemming from the 20th century outlook regarding industrialism. Yeang equates the space craft as a successful example of bionics, "copying the circulation of matter and energy in nature within a closed artificial ecosystem." 1 Further 'enclosed' theory would continue to merge concepts of bionics and ecology to develop projects like Biosphere.