I think it's possible that the rise of new technologies will allow us to indulge our natural tendency to isolationism, exclusionism, and discrimination. Scans_daily itself represents one such "distributed tribe."
The rise of nations demonstrates that there are clear advantages to association on a grand scale - yet it seems to me (though this is still at the hypothetical stage, not enough historical data to back an actual trend) that we are now in the process of dividing ourselves back into smaller self-selected communities, under the belief that we (and only we) can provide for ourselves. We can pick news sources and friends who tell us exactly what we want to hear and already believe. One possible outcome of this is depicted in the novel Snow Crash: a society divided into thousands of semi-independent micro-societies and gated communities, who interact mostly for commerce. Taken to an extreme, we might even lose a common language, thanks to our fondness for jargon and shibboleths to deeply discuss matters of interest to our group and exclude outsiders; the grammar would be recognizable, but the vocabulary and content incomprehensible.
In such an environment, one might never have to suffer having one's beliefs questioned, challenged, or even examined - this is my greatest concern. IMO, it is through the exchange of ideas and encounters with different viewpoints that minds grow. Exclusive communities may be founded for many good reasons, and useful discussion needs control and boundaries, but there is a risk of a "founder effect" that limits what ideas can even be thought, let alone expressed. (Of course, this applies to patriarchy as a whole, when considered as an all-encompassing mindspace.)
Now, on the other hand, it's entirely possible that this sort of thing - like the modern vegetarian lifestyle - is a luxury only made possible by existing under the umbrella of a larger society that maintains order*, and that without that, the little tribes will be steamrollered by the larger and stronger ones until we're back to nation-size again. (This sort of annexation and "unification" is how many of the current ones came to be, after all.)
*just as I have the luxury of considering this as a matter of philosophical debate, from my position of admitted privilege, rather than a genuine struggle for self-determination.