What is an actor model?

The actor model is a conceptual model used in computer science to design concurrent, distributed, or parallel systems. In the actor model, 'actors' are independent units of computation that communicate with each other through message passing, rather than shared state. Each actor can process messages, create new actors, and decide how to respond to future messages, enabling scalable and fault-tolerant system design. This model is commonly used in frameworks like Akka and Erlang for building robust applications.