Deep Blue is not conscious either—yet it still predicts possible future chess positons, and makes moves based on its expectation of their future payoff.
Take the term as a behaviourist would. Organisms have sensors, actuators, and processing that mediates between the two. If they behave in roughly the same way as an expected fitness maximiser would if given their inputs, then the name fits.
Deep Blue is not conscious either—yet it still predicts possible future chess positons, and makes moves based on its expectation of their future payoff.
Take the term as a behaviourist would. Organisms have sensors, actuators, and processing that mediates between the two. If they behave in roughly the same way as an expected fitness maximiser would if given their inputs, then the name fits.