What it makes me think of is 'cybernetics' research from the 1960s when it was not a foregone conclusion that transistors, especially CMOS transistors, were the future of computing. Back then there was a lot of research into alternate models of computation, something that's only becoming relevant today as CMOS may be running out of steam.
I recently read The Unaccountability Machine (which I can recommend btw), which mentions Stafford Beer's experiments with a computing pond. Who knows, maybe we'll control our factories with mushroom brains soon!
