[Tyler]

From Slime to AI: The Story of Memristance
     

A NewScientist
article summarizes the memristor revolution so far and predicts
great things for AI as a result. To summarize their summary. Leon Chua
mathematically predicted the existence of a fourth basic circuit
component in addition to the resistor, capacitor, and inductor. He named
this mythical component a memristor. It
was similar to a resistor but "remembered" current. Memristors appeared
not to exist, so Chua moved on to other research. 30 years later, HP
Researchers stumbled onto a real
memristor while trying to make low-power switches (Missing
Memristor Found PDF format). The race was on. Memristance could
revolutionize electronics. But here the story takes a
detour
in the world of intelligence. Physicist Max Di Ventra was studying
P.
polycephalum, a slime mould that puzzled researchers
because it acted
intelligently and learned without the benefit of neurons. He realized
the slime mould acted as a memristor, confirming a suspicion Chua
had that memristance could explain how organisms learn. It turns out
memristors behave like neural synapses. Researchers are now working on
hybrid transistor-memristor chips that will be able to reproduce some of the
brain's processes. For more, try the HP
Memristor FAQ.
   

http://robots.net/article/2879.html
     

[one]

The 'Star Trek Voyager'  'Neural gel packs' aren't far off??