# Foundations -- Holons, Memes, Resources, Agents and Services and Agent Spaces

This section describes the conceptual foundations of the MAP in (relatively) technology-independent terms. This approach serves two purposes: (1) makes the foundations more accessible to a non-technical audience, (2) leaves maximum freedom to consider alternative implementation technologies for realizing the MAP. 

Because of its broad scope and open-ended nature, the foundations of the MAP are necessarily abstract and may seem a bit foreign at first. In subsequent sections of this book, the foundational concepts are more fully elaborated and numerous examples provided.

The self-organizing, emergent nature of the MAP forces us to rethink conventional approaches to systems implementation, evolution and operation.  Unlike designed systems where the concepts and relationships in the system are fixed and determined by the designer, the MAP allows new structures and relationships to be to be formed and dissolved dynamically.  

The MAP turns to living systems for inspiration. Living organisms must be capable of detecting, making sense of, interacting with, and sometimes defending themselves against novel phenomenon they haven't previously encountered. Likewise, the MAP must support sense-making, meaning-making, and choice-making within and between MAP entities without *a priori* knowledge of each other's existence. 

This requirement motivates the MAP's ***multi-layer ontology***. <mark style="color:purple;">(explain ontology).</mark>&#x20;

![](https://777163467-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-Mgr-A9gty1QVUBTbFyp%2Fuploads%2FDpnFuHUlmoZVHKgaNhm0%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=3e46148a-e010-443b-8187-6abad851b9b6)

The MAP's upper-most layers (Layer 0 and Layer 1), are provided by the MAP itself and referred to as the *MAP Core*. Layers 2 and greater are referred to as the *MAP Extensibility Layers* because they allow MAP travelers to extend the core elements in an open-ended way.&#x20;

The following sections elaborate on the Layer 0 and Layer 1 concepts.

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<mark style="color:purple;">\<consider role of</mark> [<mark style="color:purple;">Interledger Protocol</mark>](https://interledger.org/rfcs/0001-interledger-architecture/) <mark style="color:purple;">in the service flow -- it handles monetary flows that are independent of current (connectors perform currency exchange operations)></mark>

<mark style="color:purple;">\<consider role of Resource-Event-Agent (REA) model></mark>

<mark style="color:purple;">\<need a transition here to tee up DAHN... perhaps a summary, that could talk about how, to be useful, the open-ended nature of the information and actions of the MAP need to be accessible via an equally open-ended human interface></mark>