[erlang-questions] how to scale into the cloud using process? example computing simple average

[Kid Erlang]

hi again everybody!  it has been a few months of using Erlang!  I have been
porting my Perl scripts into Erlang and now I am almost done!!! thanks for
your help before getting my scripts ported over.

my program is now in Erlang except I do not see how to make it scale into
the cloud.  I have heard I need to use Erlang process to do this but I do
not understand how this is works.  I have tried using spawn command to
create a processes but it does not seem to do anything.  Where is good
documentation for how to use spawn?

I try to write simple example with spawn.  I want to make simple average of
these numbers as example, but calculate in paralell so it can automagically
scale into the cloud!  Here is my program:

-module(averager).
-compile(export_all).

paralell_average(List)->
  N=0,lists:foreach(fun(X)-> spawn(fun()-> N+X end)end,List),N/length(List).

but it always returns 0.0 no mater what List is!  what am I doing wrong? :(
I have tried to use N+=X like in Perl but I think this does not work because
of the single assignment?  same with N=N+X.  how can I make processes make
the value of N go up?  I don't get it :(

I have also read that processes must be in recursive?  How would I write
this process in recursive?

and as soon as my program is made of processes where is good documentation
for making it scale into the cloud?

- Kid Erlang
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