"Biophilia, if it exists, and I believe it exists, is the innately emotional affiliation of humans beings to other living organisms. From the scant evidence concerning its nature, biophilia is not a single instinct but a complex of learning rules that can be teased apart and analyzed individually. The feelings molded by the learning rules fall along several emotional spectra, from attraction to aversion, from awe to indifference, from peacefulness to fear-driven anxiety.These multiple strands of emotional response are woven into symbols composing a large part of culture. When human beings remove themselves from the natural environment, the biophilic learning rules are not replaced by modern versions equally well adapted to contemporary technological features of life. Instead, they persist from generation to generation, atrophied and fitfully manisfested in the artificial new environments. It is no accident of culture that more children and adults visit zoos than attend all major professional sports combined (at least in the United States and Canada), that the wealthy continue to seek dwellings on prominences above water amidst parkland, and that urban dwellers continue to dream of snakes for reasons they cannot explain."
