[From Fred Nickols (2012.06.09.0625 PDT)]
Note the comment below (from another list) about amoebas. I seem to recall
a discussion about amoebas on this list quite some time back. Does the
fellow below have it right? It seems to me he's off a click. It seems to
me the amoeba doesn't sense the right direction, it simply senses where it
is and compares that against some reference signal. Hmm. Does an amoeba
"want" to be anywhere?
Fred Nickols
If I remember my biology correctly, the amoeba survives by constantly
sending out pseudopods ('false feet') in all directions sensing the
'right'
direction to move. If it stops sending out the pseudopods and 'decides' to
stay in one place because it finally found The Right Spot, it dies very
shortly!