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God's Lonely Programmer

motherboard.vice.com

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Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#201

Post by MarkPNeyer »

MrBra wrote: post #70
MarkPNeyer wrote: post #34

i have had a number of experiences very similar to what terry went through. connecting computing to religion, seeing 'larger patterns' that weren't there, believing in conspiracies directed at me... it was rough. i was lucky enough to have a few people really step up and support me when i was at the edge. it's weird reading this and feeling like i know exactly what he means when he says this stuff that sounds crazy.…

Didn't read the comments at reddit yet, but I wanted to say that a friend of mine, also in IT, had a similar experience where he started to see conspiracies everywhere, and "religion thoughts" kicked in for him as well. After some time on cure this regressed and he now even jokes about that period. He got to work again and has a completely normal life, but in a way I can still feel something changed inside of him...…

sure - add me on facebook or through my blog or what have you.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#202

Post by jpgvm »

blt wrote: post #46

I really like the "modern, souped-up, multi-tasking, cross between DOS and a Commodore 64" vision for TempleOS. The OS also has some innovative design choices like using the C compiler as the shell and compiling most programs on the fly. It reminds me of Lisp Machines in a way. A different vision of what computing could be like if closed-source binary-distributed software didn't exist. I wish the source code ( http:/…

It also uses physical memory, not virtual memory and no protection to prevent 'userspace' programs from modifying the kernel. I quote userspace as it doesn't technically have the same distinctions that you are used to.

This has some interesting performance implications. Specifically there is no need for a traditional "kernel bypass" when you want to work with hardware from userspace.

For instance in Linux we have stacks like the Infiniband networking stack and some userspace TCP stacks (usually based on PF_RING) that are quite a hack to build in Linux that would be "just the way it is" in TempleOS. (though it's worth mentioning that TempleOS has not networking capability, apparently Gods decision)

These sorts of operating systems were common before multi-user computing but died out because of the need to protect the operating system from it's users and the applications they may want to run.

However the world is coming full circle again. Unikernels are back, sometimes they are written in C, sometimes in OCaml (MirageOS), sometimes in Erlang (ZergVM or something I think).

TempleOS may actually provide insights for how to do these sorts of things as it's been built this way for a long time which can't be said of many other modern operating systems.

Alas, people would probably need to see past the somewhat spiky exterior (Terry himself) to appreciate his work.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#203

Post by jpgvm »

DanBC wrote: post #198
jpgvm wrote: post #197

Sad that the debate got almost entirely derailed by people labeling Terry a racist. The poor man probably doesn't even realise he is offending peoples fragile sensibilities. I think people need to cut him some slack when it comes to language. They are just words, there is no intent.

We can condemn the behaviour while having sympathy about the causes.

Sure, but it's such a waste to even talk about it.

There is so much more productive discussion to be had.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#204

Post by themodelplumber »

jrapdx3 wrote: post #196

Having treated thousands of individuals with schizophrenia, bipolar and other similar severe, chronic disorders I found the article to be fascinating. It succeeded in portraying the "mindset" of the creator of the OS and giving a glimpse into his experience. It made me believe Mr. Davis really did share his deep convictions just as he described. I've always thought having a mental disorder did not mean a person did n…

Thank you for your comments.

> TempleOS for all its eccentricity is also very beautiful and in its own way remarkable coherent

As a visual designer myself, his highly-symbolic visual language demonstrates what I understand as a telltale lack of nuance common to those suffering from certain mental illnesses, but the impressive part to me is that he really maximizes it. He seems to have access to an amount of "flow" that many people would kill to harness for their own purposes (of course without its drawbacks in this case). I was wondering if this may indicate that he is receiving a level of care that is fitting for his current needs.

I would love to see many other concepts expressed and illustrated with his current visual vocabulary, but I guess limiting it to Israelite Vision is part of the tradeoff.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#205

Post by hueving »

king_jester wrote: post #141
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> His racism probably isn't his fault. It's probably a factor of his condition. I don't know if his racism is the result of or related to his condition. However, even if it is, so what? Why exactly does that behavior get to be overlooked as though it doesn't have a real effect on people who suffer from it? Why does he get assistance to find a job while non-white people struggle to find work in tech?

"while non-white people struggle to find work in tech?", said nobody who has ever been in Silicon Valley.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#206

Post by alextgordon »

BenDaglish wrote: post #179
btilly wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe that you should be downvoted. If you read Paul Graham's essay http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html , it is clear that our current hypersensitivity to racism is a current moral fashion. You're not allowed to be racist, you're not allowed to think racist things, you're not even allowed to question our society's chosen approach to racism. Which is just silly. Facts remain facts even if we don't like them.…

> Facts remain facts even if we don't like them. It depends not only on your definition of "facts", but on the interpretation of the same, and how that affects policy and decision making. For instance, these too are all "facts". "Poor people have lower IQ's than rich people" "Americans have lower IQ's than the Japanese, Italians, Mongolians, British, Austrians and many many others" "More men have high IQ's than women…

I'm as sceptical as anybody of the merits of IQ as a means for assessing "intelligence", however the fact remains that it is simply a test of memory and logical reasoning. You might as well ban giving maths tests.

I think you'd agree that IQ does not discriminate based on race at all, it discriminates based on class.

It seems common in American discourse to dress class divides up in some kind of "-ism", to subvert the individualistic views that many on the right hold. Everybody wants to fix racism, but many Americans seem to treat systemic poverty with an "every man for himself" attitude.

Unfortunately this has the result of burying the issue, because even if all racism in America were eliminated, the class divide would still remain.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#207

Post by DanBC »

vinceguidry wrote: post #42
yzzxy wrote: post #22

I wonder if there is something the programming community could do to help him. I'm not sure what this could entail, but I'd hope there are people who would be willing to talk with him about his interests or attempt to set up some kind of assisted employment situation - he is by all accounts a very talented engineer.

One of the wonderful things about Western society is that it's got enough social welfare structures to allow someone like Terry to exist, is wealthy enough to allow them to thrive, should they want to, and enough individualism to where he's not constantly being beaten over the head with other people's demands for him to change to fit their idea of what a person should be. As someone who has at times relied on this so…

> His is a wholly self-directed life

Assuming he has the capacity to reject medication.

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#208

Post by netstag »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #58
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…

> find an open-minded employer who might listen to the situation and be willing to give Terry a shot?

When you strip away the notion, or often the facade, that jobs are not a form of enslavement then you might be asking yourself the question I'm asking: Why would you want to do that to him? It's not like he hasn't been able to find a purpose in life to keep himself happy. Or do you really know anything about him or what his needs are to suggest a 'job' would be of any help?

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#209

Post by wlesieutre »

king_jester wrote: post #141
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> His racism probably isn't his fault. It's probably a factor of his condition. I don't know if his racism is the result of or related to his condition. However, even if it is, so what? Why exactly does that behavior get to be overlooked as though it doesn't have a real effect on people who suffer from it? Why does he get assistance to find a job while non-white people struggle to find work in tech?

I wonder if it's a similar deal to the conspiracies and finding patterns that aren't there. Mentally healthy people already have trouble with cause and effect with race issues, so instead of going "Lots of black people in jail -> The war on drugs is absurd and our justice system has problems" he connects "Lots of black people in jail -> black people are bad."

/ Not a psychologist. unless internet armchair psychology counts

Re: God's Lonely Programmer

#210

Post by vinceguidry »

DanBC wrote: post #207
vinceguidry wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the wonderful things about Western society is that it's got enough social welfare structures to allow someone like Terry to exist, is wealthy enough to allow them to thrive, should they want to, and enough individualism to where he's not constantly being beaten over the head with other people's demands for him to change to fit their idea of what a person should be. As someone who has at times relied on this so…

> His is a wholly self-directed life Assuming he has the capacity to reject medication.

The article says he's down to one medication.
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