(4) the social background characteristics of the immigrant population and the degree of homogeneity which exists; (5) the social organization structure that is imposed upon the population. There is little that can be done about the first two factors, but the remaining factors are subject to manipulation in order to facilitate development of a satisfactory human lifestyle within the constraints of the first two. This places a requirement for social engineering within the space station planning effort. Social engineering is a branch of applied social science that seeks to apply sound theoretical and research generated knowledge and principles to achievement of specific and recognized social objectives. It is concerned more with creation and development of new sociocultural patterns than with bringing behaviour into conformity with rigid, pre-existing, norms and values. It seeks to anticipate and identify societal difficulties and to devise sociocultural means through which anticipated difficulties can be avoided, or through which existing difficulties can be ameliorated. At the individual level, social engineering may involve new norms, roles and behaviour patterns; at the institutional level it may involve new institutions and new types of relationships between the groups through which humans organize their activities and behaviour. To many people the idea of social engineering conjures visions of George Orwell's 1984 in which social control is total and authoritarian; a world in which individual freedom of thought and action is repressed and all power rests with an autocracy that works its will upon people without regard to human rights and needs. At the opposite end of the social control spectrum, however, lies a Hobbesian world in which every man is enemy to every man and life is cold, mean, brutish, nasty and short. It is precisely because either of these extreme conditions is possible that sound principles of social engineering must be applied to development of culture and society in extraterrestrial space. It is not being suggested that social engineers should design a specific society and culture which would then be put into place in some future space station. That would be impossible. Both society and culture are dynamic, constantly evolving, phenomena and any form that exists in one place, at a particular time, is unlikely to remain unchanged for extended periods. It is possible, however, to examine known and expected exigencies of life in space, and intelligently to speculate about others, and to make some rational judgements about sociocultural patterns to which they are likely to give rise. The desirability or undesirability of these potential patterns, and the human impact that they are likely to have, can then be assessed. Culture seeds, which hold a potential for growing into appropriate patterns for survival with a satisfying lifestyle, can be sown within the cultural baggage that early space immigrants will necessarily bring with them to their new environment. Conversely, the seeds of inappropriate patterns can be eliminated from that cultural baggage. From such primordial culture seeds, extraterrestrial civilization will grow. As the new civilization continues to evolve it must be carefully monitored by its own members; trends toward inappropriate patterns, or away from appropriate patterns, can be influenced by social intervention techniques that are under the control of institutions within the extraterrestrial society. If, for example, it is found that cooperative behaviour patterns are more appropriate for extraterrestrial survival than are competitive patterns, then space immigrants should be individuals who place higher value upon cooperation than upon competition. If continued monitoring reveals trends away from cooperation and toward dysfunctional competition, societal mechanisms that reinforce cooperative behaviour and discourage competitive behaviour can be brought into play as a means of maintaining the appropriate patterns.
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