After working on distributed systems for many many years i have come to the conclusion that seeing the world as distributed objects doesn't work as well as i had orginially hoped because distributed objects require too much common complexity to stay nimble and light. DOs require you to buy into complex frameworks which eventually kill you. Modeling the distributed world as data flow preserves maximum flexibility while maintaining a great deal power. You don't get the same power of a DO system but, like the beetle, its simplicity and robustness may keep it around while more complex organisms have died off...again.