What If We Took Message-Passing Seriously?

17 days ago

The author reflects on their background in Ruby and its culture, which emphasized code as a medium for creative expression, inspired by _why's work.
They discuss the influence of Smalltalk and Alan Kay's ideas on objects as little computers and message-passing between them.
The author contrasts common AI 'agent' approaches with their own vision inspired by Kay, focusing on self-contained computing environments that interpret messages.
They introduce 'prompt objects' as a concept, emphasizing composition, interfaces, and semantic late binding where the receiver interprets messages at runtime.
The author built 'prompt_objects', a Ruby gem for creating systems where objects can modify themselves and communicate via message-passing, inspired by Smalltalk.
They highlight the potential of LLMs to enable runtime interpretation and negotiation of messages, blurring the line between program and execution.
The piece concludes with the author's belief in the fun and discovery of programming, trusting the exploration of old ideas in new contexts.

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