If the first few years of the 21st century are any indication, it looks like it’s going to be a hell of a ride. Or as Buckminster Fuller was fond of saying, “Whether it is to be Utopia or Oblivion will be a touch-and-go relay race right up to the final moment.”

To anyone with his ears to the ground, it’s pretty obvious that the major organizational structures of human cultures are on the verge of a radical paradigm shift. The dominance of the autonomous nation state model has started to wane with the rise of transnational corporations, global and regional governance bodies, non governmental organizations, rhizomal network communities and other structures.

As our thoughts, prayers and logistic and monetary assistance go out to the victims of the recent tsunami disaster, I have been reflecting on the big picture in the global village.

Regardless of your religious or spiritual affiliation, the tsunami should be a reminder that all humans are merely passengers on this spaceship earth. The arbitrary devastation of a tumultuous weather event could realistically affect any part of the world.

Although many humans are more prone to the regurgitations of our planet based on their geographic and structural situations, even the richest, most powerful, and well-built cities of our planet earth cannot thoroughly and totally prevent the arbitrary devastation of a massive earthquake, tsunami or other geological event. This seems to indicate to me at least, that we are all just a bunch of bipeds trying to get by as best we can on this ball of matter.

Hopefully most people have learned the lessons of “Guns, Germs and Steel:” initial geographic conditions of human populations are amplified due to “the butterfly effect” leading to vastly different societies, cultures and technologies. In other words, let’s just all accept each other as humans, and recognize the rather arbitrary development of diverse cultures, societies, and religions based on initial conditions. Check ones cultural superiority at the door, if you will.

It seems that this hard-fought mental battle of multi-culturalism, edging toward the global mainstream in the ’80s and ’90s — the waning years of post-modernism — has sadly been tempered by the so-called “rise of fundamentalism” and its political consequences in the Muslim world and beyond, and America’s hard shift to the right even before Sept. 11.

The legitimate philosophical challenges to the failures of deconstructing all meta-narratives and the limitations of cultural-relativism, have so far yielded a shift in a global tone that is not optimistic, to say the least.

But from a systems point of view, is it at all surprising that the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of the global information economy would create some serious shifts and outliers in humans’ thinking and actions? However, it appears — and is my deepest hope — that this hard shift is temporary.

The neo-conservative escapade in Iraq, with its flimsy foundation of unfindable weapons of mass-destruction and drenched in unfounded intelligence and mindless flag-waving and chest-beating has, ironically, ensured that the neo-cons’ Project for the New American Century is relegated to the dustbin of history. There seem to be a lot of other hypotheses that need deep investigation.

Until we get out of the feedback loop of nation states, I’d place all bets on the 21st century heading toward Pax-Chinese. Despite all attempts from our American military, economic and governmental players to perpetuate U.S. supremacy and hegemony, it’s just not in the cards for the long run. We can probably thank the Clinton administration’s ridiculous faith in neo-liberalism, and the advent of China into the World Trade Organization as being the catalyst of the Chinese century, if it comes to fruition.

On the other hand, we could be writing a new chapter-heading for future world history primers. Instead of the autonomous nation state model, human societies might balkanize and re-align a` la “Clash of Civilizations,” move toward a world governance following the footsteps of the League of Nations, World Court and the United Nations, or head toward a tribalized world of competing strip malls where individuals identify with cultural brands, all being overseen by the WTO and the end of any trade barriers.

I am fairly positive it will be none of the above but, rather, an emergent world order whose properties are probably only vaguely visible from our epoch. But here are three tenants I have been investigating, and I think might serve as good indicators: slow is the new fast, waste equals food and atoms equals bits so everything is designable.