8W8 Name and Symbol
8W8 is the name of the world modeling engine developed by the Internet think tank The Golden Sky in the novel 8W8 - Global Space Tribes. It is also a way of seeing and perceiving the world.
You are able to learn more about the symbol by reading right here the extract from Chapter III - Birth.
Extract from Chapter III - Birth
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Oskar spoke first. “It’s like this, guys. We have been toying for almost a year with the idea of creating a tool to measure and quantify invisible realities that impact on our visible world. We decided last year to let Terri have a go at it and bring the fruits of her work to this year’s break-out. Then, just a little while ago in the solarium, Tomichi hit on the idea of transforming data such as population, the size of a given area and other things like GNP into some kind of volume—that is volumizing these factors so that when you looked down from a plane you would see not mountains, cities and billions of people, but the world as it really exists. Elements connecting with other elements, not necessarily within the same geographic picture one sees out of the windows of an aircraft. But first, we need to see how stakeholders, who we can identify, interconnect with the elements.”
Oskar looked around to see if everyone understood what he had just said. He turned his gaze in the direction of Terri and Tomichi to see if they agreed with his description of their conversation. Terri’s smile reassured him that he was spot on. Then he looked across the table in the direction of Sonja. She, too, smiled saying: “It’s elementary, my dear Fellow.”
By the end of dinner, everyone had entered into the conversation and was measuring volumes, volumizing and postulating different theories of volumization. Winston suggested that they should continue their discussions downstairs and have their dessert and drink in the solarium.
The sofas and chairs that had been left behind earlier in a horseshoe around the pool had been politely returned to their original location within the solarium by the nearly invisible house staff. When the Golden Skyers returned, they reestablished the horseshoe architecture, albeit noticeably tighter and more intimate. Perhaps, as a result of this intimacy, the group burst out in discussion and debate. Sometimes, only Terri and Oskar spoke and the others listened in rapt attention. On other occasions, there were five distinct conversations going on at the same time. On the other side of the mountain, the sun was beginning to set, but from the solarium the sky seemed to be illuminating the world. Inside EA-RA, the stars looked like lights on the roof of the earth and no one wanted to compete with nature by turning on a light. Sufficient light emanated from the bottom of the pool.
“Wow,” exclaimed Rebecca, “I hadn’t realized before, how golden the goldfish really were while the sun was up.”
Charles agreed saying that he hadn’t “even noticed the fish before.” Michael and Sonja said that they hadn’t really noticed them either. Emanuel, however said that the first thing he had done when he saw the pool was to go and see if there were any goldfish swimming around. “Because,” he said, “there was also a goldfish pool in the monastery where I studied. I remember it even now. It was beautiful: almost as beautiful as this one.”
Sonja looked at Winston, “Winston wouldn’t you say that fish pools are a common motif in Chinese culture?"
Winston was about to answer her when his Inraxx began to vibrate on the slate table in front of him. “Eight-T-Eight,” answered Winston. When he realized who it was, he waved to the group indicating that they should go on without him, and mouthed the word “BridgeMan,” before disappearing behind a door.”
Antônio, lest any of the others not understand what Winston had tried to tell the group, said: “It’s BridgeMan. Winnie has some business pending with him.” That seemed to satisfy everyone and they quickly returned to their discussions.
Before they could begin their deliberations, Hans held up his hand. “Whoa, we are going too fast, let’s take a step back for a minute. In German, we have an expression: Jedes Kind hat seinen Namen.”
Sonja quickly translated for the group, “All children have a name."
Oskar immediately corrected her: “It’s, ‘Every child has its name."
“Bravo Fellow,” said Winston who had returned unnoticed, “You speak German well for an American.” He joked since he knew that Oskar was of German heritage and had often displayed his fluency in German. “And that goes for you too,” to which Sonia replied something to Winston in Chinese.
Several colleagues looked up in dismay. Emanuel looked at them, and translated Sonia’s remark: “She said something equivalent to, ‘You are not half bad either.’”
Tomichi quickly jumped in and said, “Hey, guys, Hans has a point and we are losing sight of it. He’s right—we need to have a name for our project.
“Excellent,” added Maria, “You and Hans are exactly right. We need a name for our child so that we know what we are actually talking about.”
Terri started writing on a piece of paper. First showing it to Oskar, then looking around the semicircle she asked: “What is the most essential thing here? Actually, I should have said, ‘What ARE the most important things here?'” Without waiting for an answer, she went on: “First, it’s the world that we live in; second, the people who populate this world. Without the world, there would be no people, without people, our world would be a planet populated by other animals. What I’m trying to say is that we are talking about both, the world and people or WorldPeople.”
At this point, she turned the paper around and showed her colleagues what she had already shown to Oskar—two ornate letters, a “W” and a “P” next to each other. “I know that it isn’t too original, but I’m open to any other ideas.”
Sonia began writing on another piece of paper, then, turning to her colleagues: “You guys know that I am fluent in Chinese? I like the idea of merging the ‘W’ with the Chinese sign for people. It would look something like this.”
She passed the paper around. Hans, who was sitting next to her, said to the group, "Languages have been merging for centuries. Why shouldn’t it work for unser kind?”
Terri laughed, "So, it seems that we’ve all bought in already: have we not?"
Several people applauded, while the others nodded affirmatively. As usual Terri and Oskar were leading the discussion.
“Is that it?” Sonja and Tomichi asked simultaneously.
Tomichi continued, “I don’t think that the sign is enough to brand the engine as well as the idea.”
On one side of the table, Antônio was leaning toward Winston asking him why his “Eighty-Eight Tech” company used the brand 8T8. He confessed to Winston that he had always wondered what the use of the number eight had to do with his brand, although he had an idea. Winston responded by explaining that in China and most other Asian cultures, “the number eight stood for prosperity, good fortune, etc.”
Antônio was beginning to become more animated. “You know guys, when I came in on the helicopter; I started to feel a rhythm. It was probably a result of the rotors beating over my head. I was just thinking about that a few seconds ago when it all came together for me.” His voice began to become shrill from excitement. Then, almost shouting out, he said, “I got it. The brand for our baby is ‘8W8.’ If we take the eights for prosperity and good fortune and use them to power our engine like rotators of the helicopter which we then can use to fly through the world and see those things that appear invisible and render them visible.” Almost unable to control, himself, he began to sing in a Brazilian rhythm, “Take the eights and place them on either side of the WorldPeople sign as if they were supporting the WorldPeople and, wow, you get ‘8W8’!”
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