I think "external memories" is a reasonable term for this. If you treat it as an analogue to the computer science definition of memory - a place to store information - then it's a pretty decent way of describing what's happening here.
I suppose the fact that the information is being stored at the location it describes, instead of in a central location, makes it a bit weird?
I suppose the fact that the information is being stored at the location it describes, instead of in a central location, makes it a bit weird?
"weird" is emotional response. I think that function is the appropriate criteria here. Functionally, it is serving as memory. There's no magic difference between inside the body and outside of it.
Richard Dawkins' The Extended Phenotype http://www.amazon.com/Extended-Phenotype-Reach-Popular-Scien...
is a good read on this sort of stuff (it's a little bit more technical than his other books, but still readable by someone without a biology background).
I'd be willing to bet the mold grows generally away from the most-dense areas (say, the interior of a glob). This makes sense energy wise - would you also call that "remembering" where it was?
Similarly, many plants "lean" to point towards the sun. Are they "remembering" where the sun is with the increased growth on the far side?
You can (successfully) argue that it can be an accurate description. It is. I would argue that it's deliberately choosing words that invoke more interest (be it scientific or "OMGWHAT") than accuracy.
No, plants which do this generally grow less on the sunny side of their stalk. They are putting more / larger cells on the far side, as a form of memory. A crude counting system, if you will - when side A > side B, side B is where the sun is. Arguably this is even more complex than a mere external memory system - it deals in continuous ratios, rather than booleans!
Not of an external memory system, no. This would be internal. But would you call it "an internal memory system", or "decreased growth in reaction to sunlight"?
Another option: (micro-)evolution. Is an amoeba's resistance to a chemical "memory", or an environment-selected random mutation? Again, technically it can be viewed as memory, but it's diluting the term so far as to make it a catch-all for any kind of information, ever, to get someone to click on a link.
> But would you call it "an internal memory system"
Well, it's not being used later on to make decisions, is it?
I suppose I will go with that for my definition of memory: the agent makes a change to the state of the world (external) or to its own state (internal) and that change later affects its action.
Using that definition, my answer re the amoeba is yes.
I can see why it seems too broad. But I don't know a better definition. I suppose one could stipulate that consciousness is required. But I don't think that would be a standard position.
Unless the slime the researchers planted was from the slime-mold being experimented upon we can assume that they react in the same way to other slime-mold's slime as to their own.
I suppose the fact that the information is being stored at the location it describes, instead of in a central location, makes it a bit weird?