Habitat 2.0:
Design Approach toward a trans-planetary multispecies settlement for coexistence

Abstract: This paper aims to present how coexisting multiple species’ perceptions about one another and their surrounding environment work on earth for their sustainable existence. By drawing theoretical, biological, and computational parallels on existing works, the research aims to open a discourse on how this approach can ensure better sustenance for a codependent, symbiotic, and sustainable solution. This approach holds a divergent approach compared to the usual invasive approach towards interplanetary settlement establishment, which is currently practiced. By analyzing the behavior of social organisms and their multispecies (non-conspecific) coexistence and comparing their settlement development pattern to human this discourse will raise a concern about the existing strategy for habitat establishment in an alien planet and probable outcomes under different circumstances. This discourse will also increase the discourse on how the establishment of human settlement would affect other non-human species and the potential interaction between them to ensure a healthy and sustainable living condition.

 The research uses Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) as a tool to draw parallels on an organism’s behavior of controlling the surrounding landscape to stay away from negative responses and to move towards resource-abundant positive feedback. Humans and ants demonstrate the behavior of building bridges for easy passage over unpassable terrains after perceiving and making decisions to move towards positive feedback or move away from negative feedback. Using Stigmergic simulation in ABM, the algorithm tries to demonstrate how upon perceiving the abstract surrounding environment’s feedback agents interact with each other to overcome the obstacle in an optimised way. The agents dropping ‘pheromones’ act as motivators for neighboring agents to move towards the agents that dropped. The contextual acknowledgment and integration of the algorithmically generated model will be defined by theoretical comparison among habitats occupied by different species considering architectural and environmental challenges. The structures of societies and differences in the level of intelligence will also play a vital role in developing design codes in trans-planetary settlement development. This presentation will outline possible design considerations by comparing case studies available on Planet Earth and propose a design code evolution framework considering beyond earth settlement for our species.

Opening a discourse on how a trans-planetary habitat establishment should grow to respect the localized surrounding and coexisting organisms through literature studies and experiments can be defined as our primary objective. Through this discourse, the paper aims to shed light upon how conventional design thinking, ethics, and processes should evolve when settling on an alien planet from the earth. This paper tries to open a discourse on how a transplanetary habitat establishment should grow to respect the localised surrounding and coexisting organisms.

Keywords:. Coexistence, Multi-species narrative, transplanetary, Umwelt, Niche, Perception, Decision-making. 

This paper was presented at the Bio-Futures for Transplanetary Habitats Symposium, organized by Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE), Newcastle University, United Kingdom. It is now in the process of publication in "Research Directions: Biotechnology Design" by the Cambridge University press.