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arXiv:1008.1459cs.PL

Actor Model of Computation: Scalable Robust Information Systems

Carl Hewitt

Abstract

The Actor model is a mathematical theory that treats "Actors" as the universal primitives of concurrent digital computation. The model has been used both as a framework for a theoretical understanding of concurrency, and as the theoretical basis for several practical implementations of concurrent systems. Unlike previous models of computation, the Actor model was inspired by physical laws. It was also influenced by the programming languages Lisp, Simula 67 and Smalltalk-72, as well as ideas for Petri Nets, capability-based systems and packet switching. The advent of massive concurrency through client-cloud computing and many-core computer architectures has galvanized interest in the Actor model. Actor technology will see significant application for integrating all kinds of digital information for individuals, groups, and organizations so their information usefully links together. Information integration needs to make use of the following information system principles: * Persistence. Information is collected and indexed. * Concurrency: Work proceeds interactively and concurrently, overlapping in time. * Quasi-commutativity: Information can be used regardless of whether it initiates new work or become relevant to ongoing work. * Sponsorship: Sponsors provide resources for computation, i.e., processing, storage, and communications. * Pluralism: Information is heterogeneous, overlapping and often inconsistent. * Provenance: The provenance of information is carefully tracked and recorded The Actor Model is intended to provide a foundation for inconsistency robust information integration

arXiv comments
Relationship to Internet of Things. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0812.4852, arXiv:0901.4934
Journal reference
DOI
Subjects
cs.PLProgramming Languages cs.DCDistributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing

On Hacker News

Linked by 4 identifiable commenters in 4 comments across 4 threads, from Oct 2014 to Feb 2023. Found in 1 HN submission from Oct 2014 to Oct 2014. Open submission discussions.

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Discussed in comments4 threads

  1. Show HN: Ractor – a Rust-based actor framework with clusters and supervisors 1 comment

    • Carl Hewitt has been championing it for a while https://arxiv.org/abs/1008.1459 https://youtu.be/7erJ1DV_Tlo

      ghjnutView on HNParent context

  2. Actor Model of Computation (2010) [pdf] 1 comment

    • According to the abstract at https://arxiv.org/abs/1008.1459 , this document has been revised many times (the current version, from 2015, is v38). Is there a particular reason that v8 was the version selected for submission?

      cokernelView on HNParent context

  3. Ask HN: CS papers for software architecture and design? 1 comment

    • For me, it would be: 1. actor model of computation (https://arxiv.org/abs/1008.1459) 2. map reduce (https://research.google.com/archive/mapreduce.html)

      harishneitView on HNParent context

  4. Actor Model of Computation: Scalable Robust Information Systems [pdf] 1 comment

    • A note -- if you're linking to arXiv, it's better to link to the abstract (http://arxiv.org/abs/1008.1459) rather than directly to the PDF. From the abstract, one can easily click through to the PDF; not so the reverse. And the abstract allows one to do things like see different…

      SniffnoyView on HNParent context

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