The AO computer is the actor-oriented machine that emerges from the network of nodes that adhere to its core data protocol, running on the Arweave network. Inspired by the original actor model and Erlang, ao does not allow processes to share memory between one another but does allow them to coordinate via a native message-passing standard. Each of these processes can then be operated at the full speed of the computing resources that are available, without interfering with one another.