page_title: Terry A. Davis
section_title: Early life, career and illness
hierarchical_section_title: Terry A. Davis / Early life, career and illness
caption_attribution_description: English: Terry Davis
context_page_description: Terrence Andrew Davis was an American programmer who created and designed the operating system TempleOS. Its development was an extremely complex, time-consuming and unusual undertaking for one person. Davis also posted video blogs to social media, and by the time of his death, had established a cult online following. He often referred to himself as "the smartest programmer that's ever lived".
  As a teenager, Davis learned assembly language on a Commodore 64. He 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. 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. He collected disability payments and resided in Las Vegas with his parents until the year before his death.
  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 was in direct communication with God and that God commanded him to build a successor to the Second Temple.
context_section_description: 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. 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. 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".
  In March 1996, Davis began 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, most likely out of fear of the suited figures he believed to be following him, Davis left town and began driving 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 began to walk aimlessly along the side of the highway, where he was then picked up by an 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.
  From 1996 to 2003, Davis was admitted to a psychiatric ward every six months due to reoccurring manic episodes. In 2014, he said that he "was genuinely pretty crazy in a way. Now I'm not. I'm crazy in a different way maybe." Davis grew up Catholic and was an atheist before the aforementioned events. 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. Afterward, he felt "guilty for being such a technology-advocate atheist" and sought to emulate Jesus by giving away all his possessions and living a nomadic lifestyle. In July 1996, he returned to Arizona and started formulating plans for a new business. He designed a three-axis milling machine, as he recalled having 3D printing in mind as an obvious pursuit. An incident involving a Dremel tool nearly set his apartment on fire, which caused him to abandon the idea. From then onward, he lived with his parents in Las Vegas and collected Social Security disability payments.
  
  His schizophrenia affected his communication skills, and his online comments were usually incomprehensible. Ho
caption: Davis with his parents, around 1994
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