Gearing up for the virtual computer

The ultimate virtual computer will not model a Turing machine or even one of today's desktop computers. This computer will model complex systems that interact with people and respond to outside events continuously over time. This computational model will have a highly parallel/asynchronous architecture. Its components will interact through a future incarnation of the Internet. The paper discusses the Legion project that aims to realise the interactive/multiprocess model by meeting several design objectives. It considers how Java has all the potential programmers need to design complex systems that reflect the interactive/multiprocess model.