We present a very simple and powerful framework for indeterminate, asynchronous, higher-order computation based on the formula-as-agent and proof-ascomputation interpretation of (higher-order) linear logic [Gir87]. The framework significantly refines and extends the scope of the concurrent constraint programming paradigm [Sar89] in two fundamental ways: (1) by allowing for the consumption of information by agents it permits a direct modelling of (indeterminate) state change in a logical framework, and (2) by admitting simply-typed -terms as dataobjects, it permits the construction, transmission and application of (abstractions of) programs at run-time. Much more dramatically, however, the framework can be seen as presenting higher-order (and if desired, constraint-enriched) versions of a variety of other asynchronous concurrent systems, including the asynchronous ("input guarded") fragment of the (first-order) ß-calculus, Hewitt's actors formalism, (abstract forms of) Gelernter's Lin...

Concurrent computation can be given an abstract mathematical treatment very similar to that provided for sequential computation by domain theory and denotational semantics of Scott and Strachey.