"What is real? How do you define 'persistent'? If you're talking about what you can cache, what you can replicate, what you can distribute... then 'persistent' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your database."— Morpheus, on the nature of state
The Red Pill: Understanding Durable Objects
You take the blue pill — the story ends, you wake up in your stateless functions and believe whatever you want to believe about scaling. You take the red pill — you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole of persistent, stateful computing goes.
What are Durable Objects?
Durable Objects are not just code. They are living entities in the matrix of distributed computing. Each one is unique, persistent, and exists in a single location at any given time. Like human consciousness trapped in the Matrix, they maintain state while the world around them scales infinitely.
The Construct of Consistency
In the construct, we can load anything we need — weapons, training simulations, helicopter flying skills. In Durable Objects, we can maintain any state we need — user sessions, real-time collaboration, game rooms. The difference is that when you leave the construct, the training remains. When your function ends, the state persists.
There is No Server
Do not try to scale the server — that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth: there is no server. Then you'll see that it is not the server that scales, it is only your objects that multiply across the edge.
The Code Behind the Curtain
export class DurableObject {
constructor(state, env) {
this.state = state;
// Welcome to the real world
}
async fetch(request) {
// Free your mind
return new Response("The matrix has you...");
}
}"Unfortunately, no one can be told what Durable Objects are. You have to see them for yourself."
The question is not whether you can handle the truth about distributed state. The question is: are you ready to be unplugged from the illusion of stateless computing?