A Postmodern Journey through Globalization in the Digital Age Powered by the World Modeling Engine 8W8
8W8 – Global Space Tribes is a new way to see the world. It is written for everyone who uses the Internet and mobile technologies, travels and is interested in any aspect of the world in the 21st century.
The Golden Sky is a community comprised of 16 charismatic Internet activists from the worlds of: business, finance, media, government and non-governmental agencies, bio sciences, medicine, social and religious activists and environmentalists, and one metaphysician-philosopher. They came together from the four corners of the world to meet in Hawaii in the fantastically beautiful mountain home dubbed the EA-RA, by Winston Chee, a Chinese Internet billionaire. It was there, in the EA-RA, often referred to as the Golden Dome, where they develop a new world modeling engine, ultimately named, ‘8W8’, which would find the invisible digital elements, i.e. the online population and its digital activities, and render them visible to the dynamic world stake holding factors they define.
Global Space Tribes are the Internet users that the Golden Sky is able to identify with 8W8. They exist out of elements that come together in streams and interconnect both locally and globally with other streams around the world. They also can be visualized and volumized from the cockpit of the 8W8 world modeling engine, which the Golden Skyers dubbed the 8W8 Helicopter, or Heli, for the purpose of entering virtual rides. The pilot of the 8W8 Helicopter, albeit, an Internet or mobile user, a marketer, a traveler or political candidate or simply “You” of any background, could virtually ride over the flattened but fragmented world identifying subjectively or objectively new virtual structures, tracking the flow and concentrations of criteria such as: the presence or lack of wealth; trade, interconnectivity, religious or social beliefs, age and gender, environmental conditions, peace record, happiness and enlightenment, and any other factors that are normally invisible for the naked eye.
When BridgeMan, a business partner of Winston Chee from San Francisco, joined the EA-RA and learned about 8W8, he saw an immediate benefit for himself and the world in general. He extolled the concept as a way of making the invisibilities of the 21st century visible and of improving the state of the world. However, to do this, they created a communication device that allowed them to, not only connect to personal, but, also, governmental computers. The device they used was labeled ‘Inraxx’, but years later when they met on EZ 128 to save the world from a biological threat, called the ‘FaSloV’, they needed an upgrade to their device the ‘InraxxB’. Enjoy!
Prologue
Before the world was flattened and digitalized, we depended on ancient forms of communication, TV, Radio, and the telephone to see around the corners of our global neighborhoods. Even now, with always-on Broadband and 5G high definition Star Trek-like communication devices, we are still unable to catch more than a marginal peek of the developments occurring beneath the surface of the earth and beyond the sky.
Diverse perspectives and background nuance our view of the world. Yet, as in international business traveler, former Internet executive turned entrepreneur, I was still left with a sense of discomfort because I could never see more than what my five senses allowed me to perceive, knowing all along that there was so much more going on below the wings of the aircraft. Although living in the post digital world, I could not see how the world had become integrated, nor, could I see how others see what I could and could not see.
Since I could not find a tool that would allow me to make visible those things that had remained invisible to my senses and since I could conceptualize what it was that was needed, I decided to develop the tool, myself. I knew that I wanted to render, dynamically, the world stake holding factors, and to ascertain the digital impact on a global and local level. As a believer that knowledge improves the state of the world I developed an out-of-the box approach that facilitates my ability to communicate my thoughts and ideas in an innovative and entertaining way: The novel 8W8 – Global Space Tribes. I hope that it inspires and that you enjoy and can us it.
Ralf Hirt
New York City
July, 2020
The Name and Logo
8W8 is the name of the world modeling engine developed by the Internet think tank The Golden Sky in the fiction work 8W8 – Global Space Tribes. It is also a way of seeing and perceiving the world. It was released in 2008 in print and already in 2007 on Amazon Kindle, where it was ranked #1 in Globalization in several months throughout 2008.
The executive summary is that the two eighths symbolize prosperity and good fortune. In the fiction work, those are being seen as the rotators of a helicopter powering the world modeling engine allowing to experience virtual flights visualizing the world of the Global Space Tribes based on their own criteria set. The symbol in the middle stands for the key elements of our lives: the world and people. If you take off the two strings on the left and the right you end up with the Chinese character for people. Therefore the symbol in the middle stands for WorldPeople. Welcome to 8W8.
The Golden Sky
The Golden Sky, as they are formally known, is a community comprised of Internet activists from the worlds of: business, finance, media, government and non governmental agencies, bio science, medicine, music, social and religious activists and environmentalists.
The Golden Sky are:
Oskar Kiernan Feller
The kids he used to grow up with called him “OK Fellow”. Internet Scout and IT journalist from San Francisco. He writes for IT-Rag.com and seekeynow.com amongst others. Age: He has just turned 50. When he is not relaxing on his BMW motorcycle, hiss favorite mode of dress are a pair of Levis, collared polo shirt and a Harris tweed jacket with ankle length brown leather boots.
Theresa “Terri” S. Raffles
Terri is Malaysian-Chinese from Singapore. She has her B.A. and Masters in Computer Science from Oxford and had taught in the Bay Area for 20 years. She considered herself as a serious scientist and spent most of the time in the computer lab on the Internet. Her User name is LabRatSings.
Dmitri Rabinovich
Dmitri was born in Ekaterinburg, Russia, on the day, the siege of Leningrad was lifted, January 22, 1943. From 1972 to 1991, he worked for the Russian oil and gas company rising up to be Chairman of the Production and Development Committee. In 1992, with a few other colleagues, he started a technology consulting firm in Moscow. Today he is an adviser to the Kremlin.
Winston Chee
Chinese Internet entrepreneur from Shanghai / Hong Kong, who took his globally expanding social network platform 51societies.com and 51societies.com.cn public at NASDAQ the day it had reached its all time high. He owns the beautiful mountain home EA-RA on Hawaii.
Michael Currie
Currie was born in Arlington Heights, Chicago. He made his way to Wall Street. He would get up at 4 A.M., and would be in the office at downtown Manhattan, by five o’clock usually arriving minutes before his boss.
Priyanka Chandola
Priyanka was the youngest of the The Golden Sky. She was born in Calcutta and studied computer science in India and the UK. She is one of the outstanding people in IT and works in management for one of the multinational media giants.
Sonia F. Meyer
Sonia grew up in Toronto, Canada. She excelled in her studies in bio science with a Ph.D. at the age of 26. She is married to her wife Jacqueline Waters, the ballet dancer. They adopted Elvis and Batuldzii from Ulaanbatar, Mongolia. Sonia has an extraordinary “global nomade” career with a strong focus on marketing at one of the large FMCG firms.
Col Michael Lewis Korn (Ret)
The initials “MLK” were given to him on purpose. His parents wanted him to always carry the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King. During his military career, he had supervised the security on the original Internet established by the government to facilitate communications between academics, research labs and the Pentagon.
Maria M. Boyd MD
Dr. Boyd was born in New York City. Her father was Jewish and mother African American. She has lived in various African countries. She began devoting most of her time to proselytizing her anti-AIDS crusade on the Internet and earned tremendous global respect and recognition.
Tomichi Murayama
Japanese, former pilot, Buddhist. He had always loved mechanical and electronic gadgetry. He was environmentally aware at the same time. During the negotiations leading to the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Climate, he was in charge of communications, first for the Japanese government, then, directly for the UN.
Hans Dietrich Peters
If there was a true aristocrat in the group, it was Hans. His family began as traders in the 14th Century in Hamburg, Germany. Before becoming CEO, in 1975, he had worked at all levels of the company right after graduating from University, with a B.A. in Economics and a Master’s in Business Administration. Chernobyl, in 1986, impacted on him, profoundly, and wakened him to an interest in the environment. He joined the environmental movement. He progressed to wind and ocean current energy.
Emanuel
Philosopher and Taoist. He was often mentioned as a candidate for a Nobel Prize. He became interested with the possibilities of the Internet, and how likeminded individuals (Tribes) could be identified and reached.
Charles Berkowitz
He has lived a charmed life. He was born in Boston, MA, in 1970 of second generation American European immigrant parents. He has a great love for philosophy and a thirst for knowledge and is known to avidly consume enormous amounts of information and news, daily. Very early in his career he was appointed Vice President of an Investment bank and later became the youngest President of the World Industrial Bank.
Antônio Montes Rordrigues
He stands at nearly 6’ 6” . The “Walking Mountain” a musician and extreme environmentalist from Manaus and Sao Paulo, Brazil, was invited to take part in a Millennium IT Conference in Rio de Janeiro. As a member of the panel, he became acquainted with other members of The Golden Sky and since the participated in every single activity of the group.
Rebecca Donnelly
“Becky” Donnelly is the former Irish PM from County Sligo on Ireland’s wind-blown volcanic Northwest coast. Today, she is the European Commissioner of Communications and Technology. She refers to her husband as her “Carrot Top” because of his red hair and freckles. It was her suggestion that those individuals who were loosely associated in a global network known as “The Golden Sky” should formally come together as futurists working to facilitate the improvement of the state of the world.
Also:
Madam Chee
Winston Chee’s wife. The hidden power behind Winston and her involvement in his business dealings is not exactly known. She wears western dress outside of China, but at home and in China prefers Chinese dresses. She is a wonderful host and surprises their guests with creative and holistic cuisine.
BridgeMan
President & CEO of XM Corporation, the Internet giant and the influential business partner of Winston Chee and a charismatic individual with a broad variety of interests.
Learn more at https://globalspacetribes.8w8.com/
