The actor model is a way of thinking about how messages get sent, received, and processed. In the actor model, computers have "actors" or "agents" inside them which are responsible for sending, receiving, and processing messages. Think of the actors like robots in a factory. When a message comes in, it goes to one of the actors who processes it and sends it on to the other actors or computers. That way, the messages can be sent, received and processed quickly and safely.