I was reading a paper during which it discusses a memory and learning model for an amoeba.
Is this a practical thing to consider, or is the concept of learning totally dependent on the memristor concept the authors are putting forward?
http://arxiv.org/abs/0810.4179Yuriy V. Pershin, Steven La Fontaine, Massimiliano Di Ventra
(Submitted on 22 Oct 2008 (v1), last revised 27 Jul 2009 (this version, v3))
Recently, it was shown that the amoeba-like cell {\it Physarum polycephalum} when exposed to a pattern of periodic environmental changes learns and adapts its behavior in anticipation of the next stimulus to come. Here we show that such behavior can be mapped into the response of a simple electronic circuit consisting of an $LC$ contour and a memory-resistor (a memristor) to a train of voltage pulses that mimic environment changes. We also identify a possible biological origin of the memristive behavior in the cell. These biological memory features are likely to occur in other unicellular as well as multicellular organisms, albeit in different forms. Therefore, the above memristive circuit model, which has learning properties, is useful to better understand the origins of primitive intelligence.
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