1. A system comprising: a device that includes at least one processor, and a computer readable storage medium storing instructions for execution by the at least one processor, for implementing a distributed progressive analytics engine that comprises: a data item acquisition component that obtains a plurality of data items, the respective data items comprising respective data tuples that are each respectively annotated with progress markers indicating progress points associated with atemporal processing progress of the respective data tuples, each respective progress marker including a respective progress interval associated with each respective one of the plurality of data tuples; and a progressive distributed processing manager that initiates deterministic, massively parallel, progressive processing of the plurality of data items on a plurality of devices, the progress markers indicating which of the plurality of data tuples are to be incorporated into results of the progressive processing, the progress markers further indicating an ordering for incorporation of the respective data tuples into the results, each respective progress interval comprising a respective progress-start attribute value indicating a first logical point where the respective data tuple enters a portion of computation included in the progressive processing, and a respective progress-end attribute value indicating a second logical point where the respective data tuple exits the portion of computation.