To be able to even think about an outline for a new community in outer space it is necessary to ignore economic forces and not worry too much about finances. Many people will then claim that this is just one more satire attempting to penetrate the idyllic self-understanding of the bourgeois society. But that is not the case. If we were able to imagine just one experimental community in outer space, the seed would have been sown, the rumour would be rife and the example could spread all over the Universe. As we already know from our friend and secret supporter, the evolutionary biologist Rupert Sheldrake, a new idea introduced into the world tends to be replicated by means of morphic resonance and the likelihood is greatly increased that somebody else will have the same idea. The light bulb, for example, was invented in two or three places around the world at the same time. In our test community around 1,200 people are going to live together. Life in the community is going to be based on the highest degree of attention to the spontaneous impulses and more profound desires the inhabitants are experiencing. This pleasure principle will cultivate the understanding of these impulses and desires and intensify the joys of pursuing them. Generally, life in the space community will unfold in more dynamic and joyful ways than the limited possibilities the nuclear family and the labour market offer us on Earth.

Work
Because of the unlimited and adjustable amounts of sunlight available in space the society is going to be based on agriculture. More advanced industry will only be undertaken as temporary work and will focus on developing the means of communication. People only need to work with what they feel like and should only work one and a half hours with the same task every day, then they can change to other types of labour, to satisfy the butterfly drive. To overcome the Earthly dualism between work and play, and before labour can become play and play labour, work must be divided into as many functions as possible. Not, as in modern industrialism, to promote specialisation, but to make the possible combinations of tasks as varied as possible. Anybody can freely enter the group of people working with the functions that attract him or her the most. The fact that around one eighth of all necessary work will remain unattractive has still to be dealt with. Maybe they could be made more interesting by offering special colourful spacesuits to the people doing this work, or by other means, which are still to be worked out. Coercion will never be used.

Only by taking part in the wide array of groups, which are the constructive particles in the social body, will the new settlers be able to realise their talents, desires and other potentials. The groups are instrumental in channelling talents and desires and every group will institutionalise an attraction; e.g. one group could be in charge of the growing of yellow tulips, another could be in charge of the brewing of beer, another could be in charge of the baking of biscuits, etc. As mentioned, the work task changes for everyone 8-10 times a day and may change up to 78 times during a week. In a week everyone could enter 40, 50 or more groups including the groups he or she is part of during meals. You will never have dinner with the same people and often change company to make the meals more varied and joyful.

This idea, with the groups as the social fabric, is not based on the prejudice that all people are equal and similar. In space, we have to develop a new understanding of human characteristics, distinct from the normal framework of citizenry and workforce through which they are understood on Earth. Rather, this new understanding must respect the nuances of temperaments experienced in our actual relations with people. People are diverse and have a singular blend of at least 810 different character traits, which determine an individual. In the everyday life of the test community no desires should be repressed; only when they are repressed do desires become destructive and anti-social.

As a logical consequence of the variety of character traits and personalities, people will not always agree and everyday life in the space community will be filled with conflicts and rivalries. But, when the differential conflicts are based on non-destructive drives, they should not become repressive, but will be creative, like dissonance in music. A community of 1,800 individuals creates at least 3,000 antipathies, 6,000 egotistic emotions and 600,000 disharmonies. The reason that the desires in human life on Earth cause division and misery is not that the desires demand too much, it is because the society offers them too little. Furthermore, the competition in our test community will not be between individuals but between groups and not between two opposing groups but between at least three groups according to the well known principles of triolectics. The members of groups are not permanent but fluctuating according to the blend of desires the given group are channelling, which means that the rivalry will never go on between the same people and become personal.

Architecture
The construction of the basic shell of the spaceship to house the community will last two years. There is no point in going into space just to replicate the physical and social environment of life on Earth and it is not desirable to gather the participants before take-off. When the new settlers arrive at the spaceship they will meet for the first time and slowly begin to develop new patterns of social relations. On arrival the first tasks would be to construct their new living quarters and lay out the gardens. The living quarters of the spaceship will be constructed of cheap materials, wood, tinfoil, etc., so it would not be a big task to alter and rebuild in the event of life in the community demanding it. The spaceship is probably going to be an ongoing building site and will take shape as a direct opposite of Le Corbusier's production-obsessed town plans. It will be a composition of variable and flexible elements that follows the demands of the various groups channelling different drives and desires.

The centre of the spaceship will house peaceful activities such as dining rooms, discussion rooms, libraries, reading rooms, computer and communication rooms. There will also be a small garden. One of the wings will contain all the noisy activities such as wood and metal workshops and the kitchens. This wing will also contain the industrial workshops for the children, because children are usually making noise even when they make music. Generally, music will be an important part of the culture at the space station and an essential fixture in this area is a big night club. The club is divided into three zones: one for raves, one for dub and reggae and one for disco. By varying gravity when partying, new patterns of dance will emerge. The club environment will exercise and amplify the inhabitant's abilities to imagine and dream about other worlds and other human conditions. These dreams will, as guidelines, flow into the daily work on changing and extending the space station. Small, mobile sound systems will be situated throughout the space station. Opposite the wing with the noisy activities the other wing will contain the guestrooms and the reception bay, which will welcome new people to the community.

The gardens in the test community will break with the traditions of those on Earth. The different cultures in this new world will weave together in all directions. On Earth people lay out the flower garden and the vegetable garden separately. That habit will not make sense any more. The flower plantations nearest the centre of the spaceship will be planted in big areas that cross the areas in which herbs and fruit trees are growing. Even in the big agricultural areas fields of flowers will be planted, e.g. squares with rose bushes, borders with wild flowers, hills with daisies. In the flower fields near the centre there will be squares of vegetables, e.g. fields with cabbage, rows of green peas etc. We will leave behind the false division between ornament and use. Marigolds have a delicious and slightly peppery taste and are good in salads.

It is possible for people to build pavilions and sheds in the agricultural areas if they feel like it. They might be attractive to groups of introverts and other kinds of isolationists pursuing their specific desires.

Cooking
The task in the community is also to channel the happiness about food, which children demonstrate. Therefore we are going to intensify the children's passions about food by letting them grow up in the kitchens. Kids like the noises from the kitchen and are happy to take part in the noise making. As gifts when they are born all children are going to have a perfect set of kitchen tools: spoons, frying pans, whisks etc. This is going to stimulate the child's senses and nervous system in general. The pleasure principle demands this and, in our space community, all kids are going to experience the joy of cooking. Instead of trying to limit and civilise passions about food, children are going to be encouraged to develop their appetite. In our space community all are going to be cooks and gluttons. The bringing up of the children in the kitchen will furthermore make them able to take an active part in the activities in the community later on in their more mature life. They will be able to participate in the rivalry between groups in the kitchen. If, for example, 20 groups are competing over who makes the tastiest cabbage, it is necessary to know the different kinds of smell from cabbage, the consequences of varying methods of cultivation and the different ways to prepare cabbage. The kids will only live in the kitchens until they are nine years old.

Charles Fourier, Constant Nieuwenheuys, Jakob Jakobsen, et al (1808 - )