Simplicity is by design. So claims the TempleOS charter. “Minimal abstraction is a goal,” reads bullet point 10. “Sheep are fools. They always respect a design that is more complicated than another. Any genius can make it complicated. Like in physics, it takes a supra-genius to make it simple.”
From the moment it launched in 2005, the software felt like a time capsule, sharing far more in common with the Commodore 64 of the early-80s than contemporaries like Windows XP and OS X. Microsoft and Apple’s operating systems were built from 45 million and 86 million lines of code, respectively — the system that would become TempleOS had 100,000. The figure was, as creator Terry A. Davis insisted, “as God intended.”
After graduating form Arizona State with a master’s in electrical engineering, Davis spent a half-dozen years programming VAX machines for concert monolith, Ticketmaster, before manic episodes sidelined his day job. There were a number of attempts to go into business for himself, including a milling machine he’d built, before dropping the idea when the prototype nearly caused his apartment to burn down. A sequel to George Orwell’s classic, 1984, was also abandoned.
“I was genuinely pretty crazy in a way,” Davis would explain, reflecting on the period. “Now I'm not. I'm crazy in a different way, maybe.”
Davis left Arizona for Las Vegas, moving in with his parents and collecting disability. His verbal and written communications were unreliable, but he received one message loud and clear: he would build the third temple prophesied in the Hebrew Bible. But unlike the first two — built from stone in Jerusalem half a millennium before the Common Era — Davis’s gift to God was an operating system, built from the ground, up.
It was a remarkable feat for a single individual.
Work began in 2003, as J Operating system, before adopting the name “LoseThos,” borrowed from a throwaway line from 1986’s Platoon. SparrowOS was used briefly, but in 2013, it received its final — and most enduring — name: TempleOS.
“TempleOS is God's official temple,” the charter claims. “Just like Solomon's temple, this is a community focal point where offerings are made and God's oracle is consulted.”
It ran a 640 x 480 VGA with 16-color graphics — “a covenant like circumcision,” per the description. There would be no Internet support or other networking. Like the Commodore 64, it would offer educational software and games, including a custom-built flight simulator. Perhaps the most notable title was “After Egypt,” in which the player climbs a mountain to communicate with God through a burning bush. A stopwatch generates divine messages in the form of random text.
In a video describing the game, Davis notes a desire to be more like Moses than Jesus, because things didn’t end particularly well for the latter. “So I’m talking to God, and I don’t like the Christ ending so much,” he tells the camera, seated alone in a dark room. “Who talked to God and lived a full life? Terry’s not an idiot. Let’s be Moses.”
Erratic online behavior, paranoia and hate speech saw Davis banned from online forums. In the real world, found himself bouncing between residences, even becoming homeless. He traveled from Arizona to California and up to Oregon. Fans offered him housing and brought him supplies. He continued uploading videos at the local library.
“It’s good to be king,” Davis chuckled in a video uploaded August 11, 2018. He explained that he had removed many of his videos, so as to not litter the internet, adding that he had discovered a way to purify himself. Walking near the tracks that same evening, Davis was struck and killed by a Union Pacific Railroad train.
“I think I’m maybe just a bizarre little person who walks back and forth,” the video concludes. “Whatever, you know, but…”
Sources:
TempleOS: an educational tool for programming experiments https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/software-engineer/templeos-an-educational-tool-for-programming-experiments/
God’s Lonely Programmer https://www.vice.com/en/article/wnj43x/gods-lonely-programmer
https://www.columbiagorgenews.com/thedalleschronicle/news/man-killed-by-train-had-tech-following
Man killed by train had tech following https://www.columbiagorgenews.com/thedalleschronicle/news/man-killed-by-train-had-tech-following/article_1f03fc0d-c223-5f20-a915-460fce4299f1.html
TempleOS Charter https://templeos.holyc.xyz/Wb/Doc/Charter.html