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Hewitt, Meijer and Szyperski: The Actor Model (everything you wanted to know...)

jasonofthel33t · interview · Watch on YouTube

Distributed systemsFunctional programmingProgramming language design

What it is

A standing whiteboard conversation at Lang.NEXT 2012 among Carl Hewitt, Erik Meijer and Clemens Szyperski about the actor model. Hewitt, who originated the model, explains its foundations.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it as the best video introduction to the actor model, straight from its inventor, and revisited it after Hewitt's death.

  • 5 people recommended it
  • 5 different months
  • 4 strong recommendations
  • first 2015, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “Your discussion[0] with Meijer and Szyperski was mind-blowing and taught me a lot about the actor model.”

    Mind-blowing discussion that teaches the actor model

    napsterbr, 2021-03 · Strong recommendation · in “A few notes on message passing”

  2. “This is one of my favorite tech talks.”

    Favorite tech talk on the actor model

    TowerTall, 2023-01 · Strong recommendation · in “Carl Hewitt has died [pdf]”

  3. “I highly recommend this entertaining 45-minute explainer by Carl Hewitt”

    Entertaining 45-minute explainer on actor model foundations from Hewitt

    matesz, 2025-07 · Strong recommendation · in “Pony: An actor-model, capabilities-secure, high-performance programming language”

  4. “For those who like to learn from videos, here is an interview/lesson from Carl Hewitt”

    Interview and lesson on the actor model from its inventor

    prodtorok, 2017-09 · Recommendation · in “Get to Know the Actor Model with JavaScript”

  5. “This really helped me”

    Clarifies actor model versus communicating sequential processes

    helge9210, 2022-04 · Recommendation · in “Actor system for the JVM developed by Electronic Arts”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: actor model, concurrency, carl hewitt, erik meijer, messaging

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