There are two different methods of heterogenization: localization and interweaving. In localization, each of the heterogeneous elements separates itself and settles in one locality. Chinatown in San Francisco is an example. In localization, heterogeneity increases between different localities, but each locality becomes homogeneous. On the other hand, in interweaving, different elements are interwoven together. This system creates no great differences between localities, but within each locality there is a great diversity. In the interwoven system, accessibility to different elements increases. It becomes easier for the individual to heterogenize himself. For example, a white person may eat Chinese food on Monday, Italian food on Tuesday, learn Judo on Wednesday, or become a full-time Tibetan Monk. Both localization and interweaving may be incorporated in the design of extraterrestrial communities.
The Problem of Matching
Individuals vary in their taste, abilities, and optimal rate of communication. No culture is "healthy" or "unhealthy" for everybody. Each culture is healthy for those whose tastes, abilities and rate of communication match with it, and unhealthy for others. High-communication individuals suffer in a low-communication community, and low-communication individuals suffer in a high-communication community. The same holds true for the matching of individuals to jobs, or individuals to individuals.
Successful matching requires availability of variety, and availability of variety depends on the number of different types of communities as well as the degree of heterogeneity within a community.
There is also the problem of size vs. number. For example, many areas of the Midwest have a large number of small colleges, each with 1000 or 2000 students. They all have libraries with more or less the same basic books. In a way this large number of small colleges creates heterogeneity. But in another sense a small number of large universities can create more heterogeneity, especially in the variety of library books or in the variety of departmental subjects. The planning of extraterrestrial communities presents similar problems.
Self-Sufficiency of an Extraterrestrial Community
One of the most frequently asked questions regarding the idea of extraterrestrial communities is whether they can be self-sufficient. There are several different criteria for self-sufficiency:
- Ability to survive and develop without any interaction with other communities.
- If isolated, ability to survive at a reduced level.
- Inability to survive without interaction with other communities, but financially self-sufficient in the sense that the "export" and the "import" balance out.
- Ability to produce for export.
Turnover of Personnel
There are three kinds of people who go to work in remote terrestrial areas such as Alaska: those who like adventurous life or like to challenge harsh, inconvenient life and enjoy it; those who have a romantic but unrealistic notion of adventurous life, find themselves incapable of living there, and return as soon as the first contract period is over; those who go for money, even though they hate the life in the remote area.
The percentage of the second and the third categories is very large. The material conditions in extraterrestrial communities will be comfortable; more comfortable than living in Washington D.C. in summer or in Boston in winter. What would probably make life in an extraterrestrial community "harder" than life in Minnesota or California is isolation from the Earth and smallness of the environment. In these two aspects, an extraterrestrial community resembles Hawaii rather than Alaska.
High monetary incentive should not be used for space colonization recruiting because it attracts the wrong people. Furthermore, it would be unhealthy for the community as well as for the individuals concerned to make efforts to retain "misfits" in the extraterrestrial community. It would be healthier to return them to the Earth, even though this might seem more "expensive."
During the feudal period in Japan, political offenders were often sent away and confined in small islands. This form of punishment was called "shimanagashi." In many American prisons today, there are "isolation units" and "segregation units" where inmates whom the prison authorities consider as "troublemakers" are confined for a length of time.
To a smaller degree, the "mainlanders" who spend a few years on an isolated island, even though the island may have large cities and modern conveniences, feel a strange sense of isolation. They begin to feel left out and intellectually crippled, even though physically life may be very comfortable. People suffer from the shimanagashi syndrome unless they were born on the island or have lived there a long time. For many people, life in Alaska has more challenge and excitement than life on a remote island. Often daily life in Alaska seems to consist of emergencies, which test resourcefulness and ability to cooperate with other individuals.
Furthermore, Alaska is not only part of a continent but also has travel possibilities that are almost unlimited in winter as a result of snow on land and ice on the ocean, both of which serve limitless highways for sleds and skis. On an island, however, one cannot go beyond the shoreline, whereas in Alaska one can travel far beyond the visible horizon.
Would the immigrants of extraterrestrial communities suffer from the shimanagashi syndrome? Journals and books can be transmitted electronically between the Earth and extraterrestrial communities, so that these communities are not isolated in terms of communication. However, in terms of physical travel they are isolated — at least between the Earth and extraterrestrial communities — because the Earth is at the bottom of a deep gravity well. But when numerous extraterrestrial communities have been constructed, travel between them will be quite inexpensive because the transportation system does not have to fight against the gravitational field.
International Participants
When there are many extraterrestrial communities, some may belong to different terrestrial nations, some may be international, and some may even form new extraterrestrial nations.
The first extraterrestrial communities may not be purely American if the United States is no longer a major world power or a major technological center by the time the first extraterrestrial community is established. If the United States remains a major world power, many nations including nonwestern nations and African nations, could be highly technological and want to participate, so that the first extraterrestrial community may be international.
The present technological nations are not necessarily advantaged, because the technology they possess is "Earth-bound" in addition to being culture-bound. They may have first to unlearn the forms, the assumptions and the habits of the Earth-bound technology before learning the new forms and assumptions of technology useful in extraterrestrial communities.
APPENDIX B: SPACE REQUIREMENTS OF VARIOUS COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
To determine an appropriate allocation of space among the various community institutions such as schools, residences, factories, hospitals, etc., the study group used U.S. building standards and estimations of allocation of land use found in the extensive literature of community planning (ref. 46). Area and volume are apportioned to provide for a mature community in space with a population like that of a similar sized town on Earth.
The following paragraphs present much of the rationale for the allocations of area, projected area, and volume that are presented in table 3-2. Projected area and volume are simply derived from the total area allotted to a particular function. However, the projected areas in table 3-2 are obtained by dividing the total area by the number of levels in which the area is to be stacked, and the volume is obtained by multiplying the total area by the amount of overhead specified in that table.
Residences
Minimum room sizes for residences are determined from the Uniform Building Code for residential occupancies. An area of 148 m² for a family of four satisfies the requirements of the code comfortably. When space for external use and access is included, the following recommended minimums result: 37 m²/person of floor area, 12 m²/person of exterior space, totaling 49 m²/person of total residential space. When 3 m is taken as a generous value for the overhead height in these spaces, the result implies a required minimum volume of 147 m³.
To determine the projected area required per person it is necessary to divide the total area by the number of levels into which it is stacked. For the residential areas the stacking factor is taken to be 4, thus the required projected area is a little more than 12 m²/person.
Shops and Offices
Area for shops is determined from recommendations of the Town Planning Committee of South Australia which calls for 10 shops per 1000 persons, each with a floor space of 1 m²/person, an area for walkways and access of 1 m²/person, and 0.3 m²/person for expansion. The 2 m²/person allotted to parking in these recommendations is, of course, not included for the space habitat.
In a similar way the same source is used to estimate an area of 1 m²/person for office space.
Schools and Hospitals
Areas for schools are based upon an assumption that 6 percent of the habitat's children are in nursery school, 17.5 percent in elementary, 7.5 percent in junior high and 7.5 percent in high school. Adopting the highest value recommended, 10 m²/person, and assuming 3-story schools, leads to 3.3 m²/student. If student population is 10 percent of the total population, the required projected area is 0.3 m²/person.
DeChiara and Koppelman (ref. 47) recommend a hospital capacity of 693 beds for 250,000 people. Scaled down to a community of 10,000 this is 28 beds. The calculation can also be done using the typical number of patient days per year for a population with the age distribution characteristic of the colony. The result is substantially the same: 26 beds. Because of the nature of the colony and its isolation, a more realistic number might be 50.
Figure 3-2 — Alternative transportation modes in the colony.
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A 50-bed hospital including administrative, diagnostic, treatment, nursery, surgical, obstetrical, service, and circulation facilities requires 58 m²/bed or 2900 m² total. The corresponding projected area is 0.3 m²/person.
Assembly Halls
DeChiara and Koppelman specify 1.5 m²/person for 10,000 people for general community facilities such as churches, community halls, and theaters. For recreation and entertainment, indoor activities, restaurants, and so on, the recommendation is 0.4 m²/person. To include all commercial entertainment, 1 m²/person is assumed.
Open Space
Averaged over 53 U.S. cities the open space for parks and such is 18 m²/person. DeChiara and Koppelman recommend 14 m²/person. Because the space habitat contains agricultural areas that can be in part used as open space, a lower value of open space in the residential area is adopted, namely 10 m²/person. To allow a true feeling of being "open" the space has to be tall enough. This height is taken to be 50 m.
Light Industry
For the planning of new towns the Town Planning Committee of South Australia recommends 4 m²/person for light service industries. An average over 53 U.S. cities gives 8 m²/person. For planning purposes in the colony 4 m²/person is assumed.
Storage
Storage space must be provided. Adelaide, Australia, in 1957 had approximately 7 m²/person devoted to wholesaling and storage. The colony has 5 m²/person allotted to these purposes.
Mechanical Subsystems
Provision must also be made for mechanical subsystems. By analogy with Earth-like situations, a total of 400 m² is allocated to communication distribution and switching equipment for 2800 families, 40,000 m² for waste and water treatment and recycling, and 1000 m² for electrical supply and distribution, a total of about 4.2 m²/person. A major distribution tunnel is provided around the perimeter of the enclosure for mechanical facilities and services.
Transportation
About 24 percent of the total land use in U.S. metropolitan areas is devoted to transportation, that is, approximately 48 m²/person (ref. 48). However, Earth-like streets are not needed in the compact, closely-knit organization of the colony. Where typical street right of way in U.S. urban communities averages a little over 18 m, 15 m seems adequate for the colony. Thus, only one fourth as much area need be allocated to transportation in the colony as on Earth. The numerical value is 12 m²/person.