Well, actually he's describing Alef as it existed in the Plan 9 system in the early 90s. The creators of Go were also involved in creating Plan 9, so presumably

Well, actually he's describing Alef as it existed in the Plan 9 system in the early 90s. The creators of Go were also involved in creating Plan 9, so presumably they drew on their earlier experience of channels in Plan 9 when they developed the concurrency system for Go.