Fly Machines Made Micro-VMs Fast. The VMs Still Need External Orchestration.
by Nick Clark | Published March 28, 2026
Fly Machines provides fast-starting micro-VMs that can be started, stopped, and migrated through an API. The VM abstraction provides stronger isolation than containers with near-container startup times. But Fly Machines are externally managed: an API starts them, stops them, and configures them. They do not carry their own execution cycle, self-evaluate their state, or autonomously decide when to activate and deactivate. The gap is between fast micro-VM hosting and memory-resident objects that self-execute from their own governed state.
Fly Machines' fast micro-VM technology and global deployment capabilities represent genuine infrastructure innovation. The gap described here is about the execution model.
API-managed lifecycle without self-governance
A Fly Machine is started through an API call, executes until stopped or it exits, and can be stopped and restarted through the API. The lifecycle is externally managed. The machine does not decide when to start or stop based on its own state evaluation. It does what the API tells it to do.
Memory-resident execution objects govern their own lifecycle: waking when conditions are met, entering dormancy when appropriate, and resuming when new information arrives. The lifecycle is self-governed, not API-managed.
Auto-stop and auto-start without semantic evaluation
Fly Machines can auto-stop when idle and auto-start when a request arrives. This is efficient resource usage. But the stop and start decisions are based on request activity, not on semantic evaluation of the machine's governed state. An object that should remain active because its governance requires continuous monitoring would auto-stop due to lack of incoming requests.
What memory-resident execution provides
Memory-resident execution objects decide their own activation state based on semantic evaluation of their governed memory. Dormancy is entered when the object determines its task is complete or conditions are not met. Wake is triggered by semantic conditions, not just incoming requests. Fly Machines' fast micro-VM start times could provide the substrate for memory-resident objects that wake and sleep based on their own governed state.
