I get it. The everyday meaning is mutualism. I'm not confusing anything; please don't write off my perspective as mere "confusion". We are on HN, a place founded on gratifying curiosity. I was fascinated to learn the broader meaning of the term and figured that HN community would also enjoy discussing the rich technical meaning of the term. But instead I got some amusing interactions with the Semantics Police. And it's not like I'm standing on shaky ground with my definition; as I've mentioned before I am sourcing it from the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article on symbiosis. But yes, re-reading my original comment, I can see why you all might say "no, YOU're trying to be the Semantics Police!" Not my intention. I can easily hold both meanings of the term in my mind at the same time. The thing I really wanted to focus on was the fascinating richer meaning of "symbiosis" that makes space for benefit/benefit, harm/benefit, benefit/neutral, harm/neutral interactions.
The only thing I take back is the phrasing about it "evolving" since the 1960s. I looked up the biological terms; mutualism goes back to the 1840s at least. I guess Proudhon coined it. Amensalism goes back to the 1870s. Etc. It's still plausible to me that biologists or ecologists really pinned down how these terms relate to each other in the 1960s or later (since ecology as a field of study really ramped up in the 60s) but that would be difficult to prove.
Also, please remember that the topic came up because Licklider, an academic computer scientist and psychologist, used a biological term loosely in the title of an academic article published to an official computer science journal.
Much of what you write is interesting, and I appreciate your reflection. I'd just like to qualify something about Licklider. At the time of the Man-Computer Symbiosis in 1960 computer science didn't exist as a discipline, so he wasn't writing as a computer scientist. In fact, Licklider was instrumental in the establishment of computer science as a discipline through directing funds to establish the first departments for it in the US later in the '60s. (I have 1963 in my head but could be wrong.)
A more apt descriptor for him would be cybernetician. He was an acolyte of Norbert Wiener and his man-computer symbiosis can and should be read as his attempt to resolve the conflict in Wiener's writings between humans and machines. Instead of being antagonists, they could mutually benefit from one another as partners in a symbiosis.
The only thing I take back is the phrasing about it "evolving" since the 1960s. I looked up the biological terms; mutualism goes back to the 1840s at least. I guess Proudhon coined it. Amensalism goes back to the 1870s. Etc. It's still plausible to me that biologists or ecologists really pinned down how these terms relate to each other in the 1960s or later (since ecology as a field of study really ramped up in the 60s) but that would be difficult to prove.
Also, please remember that the topic came up because Licklider, an academic computer scientist and psychologist, used a biological term loosely in the title of an academic article published to an official computer science journal.