Terry A. Davis

Terrence Andrew Davis (December 15, 1969 – August 11, 2018), better known as Terry A. Davis, was an American electrical engineer and computer programmer who created and designed TempleOS, a public domain operating system.

Its development was an extremely complex, time-consuming and unusual undertaking for one person.

As a teenager, Davis learned assembly language on a Commodore 64.

He later earned a master's degree in electrical engineering from Arizona State University and worked for several years at Ticketmaster as a programmer for VAX machines.

He earned a master's degree in electrical engineering from Arizona State University in 1994 and worked for several years at Ticketmaster as a programmer for VAX machines.

In 1996, he began experiencing regular manic episodes, one of which led him to hospitalization.

Initially diagnosed with bipolar disorder, he was later declared to have schizophrenia.

Starting in 1996, Davis was admitted to a psychiatric ward approximately every six months due to reoccurring manic episodes.

In March, he had begun experiencing regular manic episodes and developed delusions centering around space aliens and government agents.

According to Davis, he attributed a profound quality to the Rage Against the Machine lyric "some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses" and recalled "I started seeing people following me around in suits and stuff. It just seemed something was strange."

He started donating large sums of money to charity organizations, something he had never done before.

Later, he surmised, "that act [probably] caused God to reveal Himself to me and saved me."

Soon afterward, out of fear of the suited figures he believed to be following him, Davis left town and drove hundreds of miles south with no destination.

After becoming convinced that his car radio was communicating with him, he dismantled his vehicle (apparently in a search for tracking devices he believed were hidden on it) and threw his keys into the desert.

He walked aimlessly along the side of the highway, where he was then picked up by a police officer.

Davis escaped from the patrol vehicle, broke his collarbone, and was then taken to a hospital.

Distressed about a conversation over artifacts found on his X-ray scans, interpreted by him as "alien artifacts", he ran from the hospital and attempted to carjack a nearby truck before being arrested.

In jail, he stripped himself, broke his glasses and jammed the frames into a nearby electrical outlet, trying to open his cell door by switching the breaker.

This failed, as he had been wearing non-conductive frames.

He was then admitted to a mental hospital for two weeks.

On the subject of his certifications, he wrote in 2011: "Everybody knows electrical is higher in the engineering pecking order than CS because it requires real math ;-) I'm a rocket scientist, though, not a very good one".

Davis grew up Catholic, but was an atheist for some of his adult life before experiencing what he called a "revelation from God".

In 2013, Davis announced that he had completed the project, now called "TempleOS".

The operating system was generally regarded as a hobby system, not suitable for general use, but Davis received sympathy and support for bringing the project to fruition.

During his final years, Davis amassed an online following and regularly posted video blogs to social media.

Although he remained lucid when discussing computer-related subjects, his communication skills were significantly affected by his schizophrenia.

He was controversial for his regular use of slurs, which he explained was his way of combating factors of psychological warfare.

Regarding these developments, Davis said in a 2014 interview that he had been "genuinely pretty crazy in a way. Now I'm not. I'm crazy in a different way maybe."

Davis acknowledged that the sequence of events leading to his spiritual awakening might give the impression of "mental illness, as opposed to some glorious revelation from God. [...] It would sound polite if you said I scared myself thinking about quantum computers. And then I guess you just throw in your ordinary mental illness."

Reflecting on the initial episode, he said, "I'm not especially proud of the logic and thinking. It looks very young and childish and pathetic. [...] In the Bible it says if you seek God, He will be found of you. I was really seeking, and I was looking everywhere to see what he might be saying to me."

Davis was initially diagnosed with bipolar disorder and later declared to have schizophrenia.

He subsequently collected disability payments and resided in Las Vegas with his parents until 2017.

Davis grew up as a Catholic and was an atheist for some of his adult life.

After experiencing a self-described "revelation", he proclaimed that he had been in direct communication with God and that God had commanded him to build a successor to the Second Temple.

He then committed a decade to creating an operating system modeled after the DOS-based interfaces of his youth.

After 2017, he struggled with periods of homelessness and incarceration.

In 2018, he was struck by a train and died at the age of 48.

Terrence Andrew Davis was born in West Allis, Wisconsin, later moving to Washington, Michigan, California and Arizona.

He was the seventh of eight children, and his father was an industrial engineer.

As a child, Davis used an Apple II at his elementary school, and as a teenager, learned assembly language on a Commodore 64.