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The Schizophrenic Programmer Who Built an OS To Talk To God
rossgneumann writes: Terry Davis, a schizophrenic programmer, has spent 10 years building an operating system to talk to God. He's done this work because God told him to. According to the TempleOS charter, it is "God's official temple. Just like Solomon's temple, this is a community focal point where offerings are made and God's oracle is consulted." [The TempleOS V2.17 welcome screen] greets the user with a riot of 16-color, scrolling, blinking text; depending on your frame of reference, it might recall DESQview, the Commodore 64, or a host of early DOS-based graphical user interfaces. In style if not in specifics, it evokes a particular era, a time when the then-new concept of "personal computing" necessarily meant programming and tinkering and breaking things.
While this is creepy, and might be interesting in a clinical sense ... why have we started covering the crazy end of the tech spectrum?
I'm afraid this just reads like "batshit crazy guy writes gibberish OS, come look at our ads".
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Huh, check out this little tidbit from the charter:
" There is a limit of 100,000 lines of code for all time, not including
applications and demos. Code comments count, however. 3rd party libraries are
banned because they circumvent the intent of this limit. The vision is a
Commodore 64 ROM -- a fixed core API that is the only dependency of
applications. Currently, there are 80,668 lines of code."
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
At least he didn't create systemd, gnome3, or the Windows 8 UI.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
"[The TempleOS V2.17 welcome screen] greets the user with a riot of 16-color, scrolling, blinking text; depending on your frame of reference"
Does talking to "God" involve having an epileptic seizure?
I remember that this individual caught a lot of flack for his OS in the past - he really does have a significant behavioral disorder, so if you provide feedback, do so in the gentlest of terms. He's a good guy with a difficult problem and a fun project.
Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. -- Mark Twain
You'll be sorry! Just wait for the flood of viruses to come and we'll see who's laughing then!
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
Are you sure he's not also Dyslexic?
Invenio via vel creo
I heard the kernel now supports some advanced calling conventions, such as the one where you scream while all the registers crab-walk pieces of your dismembered mind across the room and shove them onto the stack.
This is so cool, a modern day Babels tower!
If it talks to God, it should be ideal for safety critical systems.
Is this post equating talking with God as schezophrenia or does the guy really have schizophrenia?
Trying to steer clear of pre-masticated/cynical news.
Relatively speaking? Yes.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
I haven't had professional need recently to install Virtualbox, but this spurs me to it. I actually want to see this and find it interesting.
These two are at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Mac OS Classic must have been more holy than Mac OS X. Makes sense, though, since everything is perfect. No need for protection.
God must not want anyone sharing documents. Oh, right, the OS is perfect, so no exploits possible.
Well, he IS a programmer, after all.
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
Nope. Just the 1st idiot.
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
I'm not going to try this. What if "god" suddenly decides to erase all my data?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
#! /bin/bash
read prayers
echo "Meh."
exit
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
No, they aren't. If you're racist, it's more than a "sin", it's an abject failure of humanity. Just the kind of thing that gets people hurt badly, often in large numbers. Your sin here is failing to recognize evil when it's right in your face.
There's no worthy point in this. None of these actions can serve to exonerate racism, or racists. The only cure for racism is to abandon it as a failed mode of thought. Every thinking being is an individual. When someone loses (or never gains) sight of that and lumps them into classes, regardless of what you call the process, it's a very, very bad thing.
No, they don't. Some people are intrinsically good; and some issues are not sins, for many varied reasons, not the least of which is an overly simplistic viewpoint of the person making the judgment. The idea that all are born with/into sin is a superstitious notion with absolutely no root in reality.
Pot, meet kettle.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
I've been claiming to use this as my operating system for years. People in tech IRC rooms get pretty frustrated when they think anyone would actually use it. Another of my favorite things to do is to ask people to stop spamming the chat because it's wasting my ink ribbon. People get annoyed when I tell them i use a Teletype 33 for irc.
http://i.cubeupload.com/T6cyLu.png
If a bunch of dudes 2000+ years ago could talk directly to the Abrahamic God, and one in particular through a burning bush, why not some dude in the modern days through a computer?
If Terry Davis isn't a real prophet today, then why can't we call the prophets in the Bible schizophrenic?
Come on, is he really any crazier than most programmers?
It's not the programmers who are a bit nutty.
It's those attempting to design or sell the impossible who then hand it off to a programmer with a deadline that would take a miracle who have lost their damn marbles.
(He can be aggressive and confrontational, sometimes denouncing critics with profanity and call them "nigger.") No editors at vice?
http://i.cubeupload.com/T6cyLu.png
Come on, is he really any crazier than most programmers?
He's not much crazier then most religious peeps I've known.
Ah, just a brief reminder, you are talking about the same person in this particular case.
I'm not saying the nutjob level scales perfectly with the combination of the two, but hey if the bible thumps...
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You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Oh great. Exactly what we need, a schism.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I wonder if this causes a kernel panic.
* God said 640x480 16 color graphics is a covenant like circumcision.
In that case, we need a better god.
Nonsense. A monochrome monitor on an old hercules card (720x350x8 pages video ram for text, 720x348x2 pages graphics) is much simpler - and simplicity is what his god wants, right? Ergo, he is serving a false god.
(oh, those were the days ... early dual monitor setups that could show the code on one screen, the output on another, when everyone else was stuck with video page-flpping).
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
"Minimal abstraction is a goal. Sheep are fools." A very christian concept I'm sure.
Only on Halloween.
He's been a schizophrenic for almost 2 decades. He lives with his parents because he couldn't make it in the outside world. What he's doing is harmless.
There's a reason it's called 'mental illness'; because illnesses should be treated.
And if you had read the article you'd know he's taking medication.
And while I agree with your statement that mental illnesses should be treated, there's such a stigma attached to mental illness that people actively resist seeking help, and others, the illness prevents them from seeking help. And unless you're in a crisis situation, for most people it's hard to get timely help, which is why the mentally ill end up having to use the emergency ward as their first contact with a psychiatrist.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
I am Davis. Look at what the Lord has given me. Here are fifteen (accidentally hits backspace key), er, ten commandments.
I read the charter.
And as crazy it seems, I kinda love it.
I mean, its not like I'd ever use such a machine for day to day work.
But, it could actually be pretty awesome as a learning machine or "toy" for young programmers. Kinda like the C64 it pays homage to.
-- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
It says in the first sentence of the summary how long he worked on it. Do you have the attention span of a gnat?
He didn't say asshole so probably not.
For some reason this reminded me of the "Church of Pong" in Neuromancer.
I've been checking this guy's diary out here and there for a while [http://www.templeos.org/Wb/Accts/TS/Wb2/Rants/TAD/TADRants.html]. To me this seems more like an NSA-created fictional character designed to discredit the Open Source community. Yes, they actually do that [https://firstlook.org/theintercept/] Go read the diary, search for three-letter organizations, and observe the context. Pretty interesting.
If I use this operating system, can I use it to talk to God too?
It's a toy OS not a production system.
GOD said to split it into two pages. Then GOD saidth, Upon each, thou shalt place five, not three and not four, but five commands. And, he saw it was good.
If you don't get reference you're missing out ;)
http://personofinterest.wikia.com/wiki/The_Machine
Although I wish they'd focus 100% on the bigger story and stop with the crime of the week crap.
Eliza says: "So you say you feel the need to worship me. Tell me more."
GLaDOS says: "Well it's about bloomin' time. Go reattach that part that fell off me already."
Clippy says: "You appear to be writing a holy book. Would you like to change my appearance to one of my 666 skins before I begin to hel...p? "
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
I got distracted by the crazy link bait crap at the bottom of the page. Come on slashdot... I've been a member for nearly 15 years but you're about to lose me. I don't mind a banner ad here or there but I see one more "10 foods that'll make you old" I'm going to scream.
Oh yeah, so the intersection of a crazy and computer science brought this to life... oh great.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
He's schizophrenic.
He's a programmer.
He wrote an OS that he says is for talking to God.
Which one of these is nonfactual or biased?
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
It's a COVENANT. Like circumcision.
You know... for kids.
God also told Davis that 640x480, 16-color graphics "is a covenant like circumcision," making it easier for children to make drawings for God.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
A very peaceful man, as seen from his writtings, http://www.templeos.org/Wb/Acc... And I quote: " Fucken niggers! It's fucken God. Ken and Ira and the rest of you God-deniers are the stoopitest tin-foil hat niggers... " Love thy neighbor....
There once was a cult which was into flashy colors.
To be fair, a lot of relatively sane people were into flashy-colored web sites at the time.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Knowing he's schizophrenic , its interesting listening to him code and try to explain. You can definitely tell and hear the interruptions he has possibly as he may be hearing internal voices or whatnot.
He pushes through the mental interruptions as he tries to explain his code and write code
TempleOS: 5-Minute Random Code Walk-Thru #83: http://youtu.be/mILn4H-UehQ
His channel has over 80 5 minute coding sessions, and its wild hearing him speak as his brain internal voice constantly interrupts him.
This is a small interview he did (regarding his setup): http://terry.davis.usesthis.co...
He's been banned over at hackernews, reddit and a few places for posting the messages of God which he divines from an index of phrases and a PRNG. His revelations are often liberally intertwined with racist comments and violent swearing.
He's posed a slight dilemma for a few communities, as no one seems to know how exactly to react to his situation.
Here are a list of his demands in order to make god happy: http://www.templeos.org/Wb/Doc... . These include MS killing SecureBoot and VMware implementing PC speaker beeps.
Matthew 20:16
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
This sounds like it's a Computer OS for Freemasons. LOL!
The Truth is a Virus!!!
Cowboy Bebop episode "Brain Scratch." Not exactly the same but close enough for me.
Anyone remember what happened to the last people who tried to use a radio transmitter to speak to God? They all melted.
the US government wrote Stuxnet.
Indeed! Vincent Van Gogh did his best work while suffering schizophrenia, Starry Night and Sunflowers are now considered the work of one of the greatest artistic geniuses to ever walk the earth. This guy is (unknowingly?) attempting to put the "art" back into the "art and science of programming", he's unlikely to succeed but he deserves credit for his effort.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Is it a bit like object-oriented C code? :-)
Nelson laugh is the best I can come up with.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
All caps, nice touch!
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
"Satan: His Psychotherapy and Cure by the Unfortunate Dr. Kassler"
The pope is a rich lazy joke along with all that elite crew..
That would be more "5 Year Old Non-News". The current pope is the first one in centuries who actually lives the sort of life the catholic church preaches.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Does it upset you that god's name is ELIZA [wikipedia.org]?
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
A psychiatrist told me one time that I was the most normal, sane person he'd ever met, but considering his usual clientele that's probably not as much of a compliment as it may seem.
feeling a strange desire to nail him to a big piece of wood? I wonder if that will increase adoption...
yes, since most programmers would recognize that they actually should know how an oracle program they coded works so they wouldn't think of it as way of talking to/with god.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Rock on Redmond, rock on Palo Alto. Hanes: America’s First Name in Comfort Since 1901
A psychiatrist told me one time that I was the most normal, sane person he'd ever met, but considering his usual clientele that's probably not as much of a compliment as it may seem.
I wonder if he was including himself in people he'd met?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
No, even in (well-written) C, you don't just use globals everywhere.
A psychiatrist told me one time that I was the most normal, sane person he'd ever met, but considering his usual clientele that's probably not as much of a compliment as it may seem.
Nah, he says that to ALL his patients :-)
But seriously, there are so many of the "walking wounded" out there who deny they need help, and it interferes with their day-to-day living, sometimes seriously. People who beat their spouses and kids. People who have phobias they won't address. People who think that because they so order, even if it's impossible, it makes it the One True Way (most programmers have had one or more of those as bosses). People who keep doing the same thing over and over and complaining that they keep getting the same results. I'm sure you can add to the list.
So maybe he was telling the truth?
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
A single dimension (or 0th?) is the simplest one. It doesn't mean it's the most sensible or useful one. It's very hard to find the balance between simplicity and utility, and 640x480x16 seems to be the sweet spot according to God.
He believes god told him to do this, and it's a way of talking directly with god. But his own coding will reveal he can't really do that, or at least he gets no genuine response, and so he will self prove his own belief as wrong.
The preacher had been heckling the town drunk from the pulpit every week, but the drunk continued to booze it up.
The preacher went to a conference, and when he got back, the first person he ran into was the drunk.
"Preacher, a bolt of lightning hit my house and it burned to the ground" said the drunk.
"Well, I warned you that if you didn't change your reprobate ways God would punish you. It is a sign of what God has in store for sinners like you!"
Then the drunk said "Oh, my bad - it was YOUR house that was struck by lightning and burned down."
"The Lord moves in mysterious ways."
People will continue to believe what they want to believe.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.