What If We Took Message-Passing Seriously?
a day ago
- The author's background in Ruby culture and _why's poignant guide shaped a view of code as a medium for creative expression rather than just a tool.
- Inspired by Alan Kay's vision of objects as self-contained computers communicating via messages, the author built a Ruby gem called 'prompt_objects' for AI agents.
- Prompt objects are self-modifying, receive natural language messages, and interpret them at runtime, enabling semantic late binding.
- The system blurs the line between program and execution, allowing agents to bootstrap competence by adding capabilities as needed.
- The author argues that 'agent' primes thinking about autonomy and guardrails, while 'prompt object' encourages composition and message protocols.
- The approach is exploratory, treating programming as a place to discover rather than just produce, and invites others to experiment with the gem.