This document discusses the RoarVM and Sly programming language in the context of parallel and distributed programming for manycore architectures. It introduces the RoarVM, an enhanced Smalltalk virtual machine that supports parallelism. It also describes Sly, a programming language being developed as part of the Renaissance Project that aims to embrace nondeterminism in parallel programs by using ensembles, adverbs and gerunds. Examples of using Sly to model flocking behavior are provided. The document argues that Sly shows promise as a programming model for scalable applications on manycore systems.