Actor Model
The actor model in computer science is a mathematical（数学的） model of concurrent computation（计算）
that treats "actors" as the universal primitives（通用原语） of concurrent computation: in response to a
message that it receives, an actor can make local decisions, create more actors, send more messages, and
determine how to respond to the next message received. The actor model originated in 1973. It has been
used both as a framework for a theoretical（理论） understanding of computation and as the theoretical
basis for several practical implementations of concurrent systems. The relationship of the model to other
work is discussed in Indeterminacy in concurrent computation and Actor model and process calculi.
The Actor Model provides a higher level of abstraction for writing concurrent and distributed systems. It alleviates
the developer from having to deal with explicit locking and thread management, making it easier to write correct
concurrent and parallel systems. Actors were defined in the 1973 paper by Carl Hewitt but have been popularized
by the Erlang language, and used for example at Ericsson with great success to build highly concurrent and reliable
telecom systems.
The API of Akka’s Actors is similar to Scala Actors which has borrowed some of its syntax from Erlang.
原文：http://my.oschina.net/xinxingegeya/blog/363758