Abstract
An increasing number of counter-hegemonic, plausible scenarios focus on possible responses to concerns about planetary limits and how humanity might rapidly navigate from unsustainable, mechanistic, socioeconomic arrangements to a sustainable, distributed and networked future. If realized, the revolution these scenarios portray, will drive a transformation in how we conceive form and space, in ways far more profound than those that shaped the second industrial revolution, of the 20th century. The discontinuities theycontemplate provide the opportunity for radical departures in design. If embraced they could; rapidly recalibrate urban settlement dynamics, disintermediate conventional energy systems, redefine value creation and economic activity through network centric business model design, assist in the development of new food systems in a world of insecurity and repurpose institutions. However to realize this potential and to counteract the vested interests of a late stage sensate society, it will assist foresightful, 'soft and hard' design leaders to connect with an emergent transmodernist philosophical ethos that can nurture and stimulate their collective endeavours. What I posit is that the frameworks and dialogues that inform the current hegemony are insufficient for the transformation in thinking and design that a distributed future demands. In their place credible and engaging narratives (scenarios) and a new social ethos, what the 14th century macrohistorian Khaldun characterized as 'asabiya,' are required. I contend that these elements are integral to and critical for a systemic shift, to a new civilizational construct. Therefore they are a necessary precondition for a design revolution that matters.