Disordered systems subject to a fluctuating environment can self-organize into a complex history-dependent response, retaining a memory of the driving. In sheared amorphous solids, self-organization is established by the emergence of a persistent system of mechanical instabilities that can repeatedly be triggered by the driving, leading to a state of high mechanical reversibility. As a result, the response of the system becomes correlated with the dynamics of its environment. These correlations furnish a mechanism by which a system can sense and respond to its environment. They emerge across a wide variety of soft matter systems, suggesting that this form of self-organization is generic and hence  may depend very little on the underlying specifics

 In this talk I will first review self-organization in driven amorphous solids, and then turn to a discussion of what self-organization in driven disordered systems can teach us about how simple organisms lacking a brain, such as bacteria, can sense and adapt to their changing environment.