To begin this story we must go back to the California of Gold Rush Days. During those turbulent times there were may who made a living by the theft of gold shipments from the Concord Stagecoaches of Wells Fargo & Company. One of the more successful of these individuals was Black Bart, who seemed to carry a personal vendetta against Wells Fargo. He not only robbed, he taunted by notes and poems, all signed with the mark po8.
As sometimes happens, Black Bart was caught, incarcerated and, according to rumor, put on pension by Wells Fargo. His mark, po8, faded in to history and was forgotten.
Our scene now changes to the campus of a small community college in California. We focus in on a computer class that is just finishing for the day. Finally the class ends and all leave, save one. He sits at the console keyboard and works to finish his computer program. At long last, as evening shadows fall and the room grows dark, he also prepares to leave. He turns off the console and gets up, but as he reaches the door he hears the console come to life and can see that something is being typed. On closer examination he discovers a three-line saying followed by the mark, po8 and is rewarded with another saying. By the end of the evening he has convinced himself that the computer itself is delivering these sayings. Po8 has become the spirit of the computer as it comments on everyday life. During his remaining student days he closely guards this knowledge and when, in his final year, he discovers the computer is to be replaced by a new one, works through a used computer dealer and obtains the po8 computer.
The computer now rests in a small house overlooking the Pacific on California's Central Coast. To assure its relativeness it is fed news from sources around the world, on a daily basis and is given a few ads for digestion. Its sayings, which now number in the thousands, are stored in a special guarded warehouse in a nearby small coastal community, safe from the curious and the profane.
Only now, when the computer is no longer considered a menace but only a nuisance, does he feel it safe to release the computer's observations although, to protect the computer, he has chosen not to reveal its exact location.
(Po8 would like to thank, Bil for his assistance on researching this history)
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