Even e-coli, when swimming along a sugar gradient, have an internal molecular species whose concentration roughly tracks the rate-of-change of the external sugar concentration as the bacterium swims. It's a tiny internal model of the e-coli's environment. More generally, cells often use some internal molecular species to track some external state, and update that internal representation as new information comes in.

Woah, this sounds incredibly fascinating, I've never heard of this — do you have a link to more info, or terminology to google?

I don't understand; why would changing its mind about what it wants help it make more paperclips?