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God's Lonely Programmer

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Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#51

Post by zerouniverse »

daveloyall wrote: post #39
dunstad wrote: post #13

I find this guy's moments of clarity amazing. I'm not very familiar with mental illnesses in any form, but it surprises me how clearly he understands how the rest of the world views him. It makes me think about what the world might be like if we reverse the situation, and the article were about the only man who can't hear the voice of God.

> I find this guy's moments of clarity amazing. Oh, that's because: > I'm not very familiar with mental illnesses [...] :) Schizophrenics are frequently lucid. Well, a modified sort of lucid... It's as if they are rational folks for whom first principles or axioms have been shaken up, and indeed are malleable all the time. It doesn't sound like Terry would ever think that his dinner plate would sprout legs and walk a…

Sol Robeson: This is insanity, Max.

Maximillian Cohen: Or maybe it's genius.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#52

Post by alexbecker »

_exec wrote: post #41

I've stumbled upon Terry's work a long time ago...and suffice to say he's been a major inspiration. It's a shame the majority of netizens (Yes, HN and Reddit included) can't look beyond his eccentricity and mental health issues (then again, it takes some digging and google-fu to find out the full story / context behind the man...his posts don't exactly come with a disclaimer). Going down the rabbit hole of Googling,…

While regrettable, his hellban is entirely necessary. Almost every comment he makes refers to "f------- n------" (censorship mine). To quote one from his page of most recent comments: "I spend my days clubbing r----d-n------. CLUB! CLUB! DIE N-----! CLUB! R----D! N------! DIE!! CLUB! N-----!"

That's not really something we can have on HN.

(edit: right, asterisks are formatting here)

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#53

Post by drivingmenuts »

_exec wrote: post #48
nyolfen wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the dude is straight up racist and just because he's eccentric and mentally ill doesn't mean it should be tolerated

Is he actually racist, or are his moments of unclarity racist?

To determine that might require face-to-face contact and since he is a diagnosed schizophrenic, it might still be unclear.

Even if the racism only comes out during manic periods, it would be difficult to parse that in an online medium. Since very few of us are trained to deal with that sort of episode, it is probably best to avoid the issue entirely.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#55

Post by MrBra »

nyolfen wrote: post #43
_exec wrote: post #41

I've stumbled upon Terry's work a long time ago...and suffice to say he's been a major inspiration. It's a shame the majority of netizens (Yes, HN and Reddit included) can't look beyond his eccentricity and mental health issues (then again, it takes some digging and google-fu to find out the full story / context behind the man...his posts don't exactly come with a disclaimer). Going down the rabbit hole of Googling,…

the dude is straight up racist and just because he's eccentric and mentally ill doesn't mean it should be tolerated

If you're referring to him saying "nigger" multiple times, then I think that that to him is more like a a kind of a generic bad-word to go with, and that he's not actually using it in a true "racist" sense.

Of course I agree that just using that word to insult someone classifies as racist, but so far I've never seen anywhere in his comments or rants that he actually argumented something against black people.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#56

Post by qwerta »

nyolfen wrote: post #43
_exec wrote: post #41

I've stumbled upon Terry's work a long time ago...and suffice to say he's been a major inspiration. It's a shame the majority of netizens (Yes, HN and Reddit included) can't look beyond his eccentricity and mental health issues (then again, it takes some digging and google-fu to find out the full story / context behind the man...his posts don't exactly come with a disclaimer). Going down the rabbit hole of Googling,…

the dude is straight up racist and just because he's eccentric and mentally ill doesn't mean it should be tolerated

99% americans are racists.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#57

Post by Covzire »

daveloyall wrote: post #39
dunstad wrote: post #13

I find this guy's moments of clarity amazing. I'm not very familiar with mental illnesses in any form, but it surprises me how clearly he understands how the rest of the world views him. It makes me think about what the world might be like if we reverse the situation, and the article were about the only man who can't hear the voice of God.

> I find this guy's moments of clarity amazing. Oh, that's because: > I'm not very familiar with mental illnesses [...] :) Schizophrenics are frequently lucid. Well, a modified sort of lucid... It's as if they are rational folks for whom first principles or axioms have been shaken up, and indeed are malleable all the time. It doesn't sound like Terry would ever think that his dinner plate would sprout legs and walk a…

I wouldn't classify his belief in God as a "crazy idea" in the purest sense of those words. Scientifically, a God powerful enough to create this universe could easily and rationally be powerful enough to make certain demands of said creation, one of which might rationally be that the created beings need faith in God to achieve their designed capability.

There is a wonderful uniformity to the universe that allows computers to exist. To put that uniformity on a pedastal though and declare there is no God is definitely not a rational belief one can be dogmatic about.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#58

Post by sillysaurus3 »

GuiA wrote: post #40

I'm a huge fan of Terry's work, because he works hard, has a clear vision for what he wants to do, and makes it happen. That's more than can be said of many self-professed hackers who never see a project to completion or are motivated solely by peer recognition. You may disagree with the logical coherency of his goals - I for one think the "temple for God" thing is pure kookery - but he is a master craftsman, and in…

Every time his story comes up, there are people who respond with answers along the lines of "what can we do for him? can we find him assisted employment? can we raise money for him?" etc. While these comments are surely well intentioned, they end up being mostly condescending and out of place, as if talking about a completely helpless being.

He is openly racist. He can't find a job on his own, unless it's among other extreme racists. I'm extrapolating based on his online behavior. If his real-life behavior is completely different, then that's one thing, but that seems unlikely. And his online behavior is so racist that there's just no chance of him fitting into any average social situation.

His racism probably isn't his fault. It's probably a factor of his condition. But isn't that the definition of "needs help"? So shouldn't we try to ask whether he wants our help, and if so, find an open-minded employer who might listen to the situation and be willing to give Terry a shot?

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#59

Post by damurdock »

yzzxy wrote: post #16
Delmania wrote: post #5

Terry is technically brilliant, but I just don't understand TempleOS. I can't tell if he's serious, or it's a tongue in cheek concept.

It's very real. I've installed it in a VM and played around for a while - it's technically very impressive and has a HUGE number of utilities and weird little features.

Does it run in standard VirtualBox?
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