> This seems a mystical belief, given all we know of the world.
if you assume that intelligence comes from the brain and if you assume that the brain is just a very highly optimized computer, there's no need for an intelligent entity to be alive. it just needs an adequate computer to exist.
Sure, but the computer must have been built by some form of life ultimately (possibly through a long line of other computers). If your point was only that artificial life created by a form of life could vastly outlast that form of life, then I agree that that is a very good point.
> This seems a mystical belief, given all we know of the world.
if you assume that intelligence comes from the brain and if you assume that the brain is just a very highly optimized computer, there's no need for an intelligent entity to be alive. it just needs an adequate computer to exist.