Edit: grammar
I will say that the oracle part of his OS is a random text generator that he interprets as coded messages from god. At least that is what I read in an interview.
Very, very strange, interesting cosmology he has.
https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=TerryADavis
I have been following his coding for quite a while and I think it is really impressive.
On the one hand that doesn't give someone carte blanche to do whatever they want. If he started stabbing people we'd (hopefully) put him in a place where he couldn't do that anymore, e.g. some sort of inpatient program.
On the other hand, it's a little hard to take anything he writes/says with any sort of gravity given the obvious schizophrenia. It's a little like if a very small (like, just learned to speak) child dropped an N bomb. I don't think most of us would attribute any malice to it, more just see it as a reflection of mental immaturity. Unfortunately, whereas you can correct a child, you can't really correct a schizophrenic.
So I guess the solution is just to draw attention to it but take it with a grain of salt? I dunno.
If I was diagnosed with autism it would be different, Microsoft and others have plans to hire autistic people. But schizophrenia and autism get treated with the same medication.
I learned meditation from Buddhism to screen out negative thoughts. You can correct a schizophrenic. John Forbes Nash Jr. was a schizophrenic and he got better over the years until he died recently in a taxi crash.
I can't explain Terry's racism, or his behavior. He does have programming skills and a high IQ and can produce results.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/opinion/sunday/schizophren...
Sometimes when you have a high IQ, you develop a mental illness as a side-effect.
People thought Steve Jobs was Schizophrenic: http://www.thoughtsontransitions.com/2011/11/reading-steve-j...
I know many people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizophrenia style illnesses.
They're all kind of embarressed about the shenanigans they get up to when they're ill. I don't know anyone who wants to get a free pass on bad behaviour just because they have a severe and enduring mental illness.
Empathy and understanding and a bit of tolerance, yes.
I get very nostalgic reading about your work Terry, I haven't done anything low-level since I started playing with the C64.
Skip to 11:30, it's amazing; the editor includes binary data - in this case 3d models - which are rendered within the editor in real time.
Sure, they could do something, but it would only be to humor him. I don't think that we should be encouraging that.
When his stuff is posted here he's getting real respect from his peers. His illness it totally irrelevant. It would be sad and IMHO wrong to turn him into some sort of VC "circus freak" attraction.
On the other hand doing something truly altruistic to help him would be of course would be very nice.
I wish I could wrangle low-level stuff as well as you.
super dope C skills bro.
It also reminds me of the story of Bolero's dementia, a bit: http://www.radiolab.org/story/217340-unraveling-bolero/
A lot of artists were mentally ill, and took up painting as a form of therapy.
In the USA they used to put the stupid with the smart in special schools and asylums for people with a mental illness. Once they changed that there are more disabled people now in society with a mental illness.
http://petroleusesletter.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/why-are-th...
Keep up the work. You're an inspiration to all of us.
