Humans are an existing proof of human level intelligence. There are only two fundamental possibilities why this could not be replicated in silicon: 1. There is

Humans are an existing proof of human level intelligence. There are only two fundamental possibilities why this could not be replicated in silicon: 1. There is a chemical-level nature to intelligence which prevents other elements like silicon from being used as a substrate for intelligence 2. There is a non material aspect to intelligence that cannot be replicated except by humans To my knowledge, there is no scientific evidence that either are true and there is already a large body of evidence that implies that intelligence happens at a higher level of abstraction than the individual chemical reactions of synapses, ie. the neural network, which does not rely on the existence of any specific chemicals in the system except in as much as they perform certain functions that seemingly could be performed by other materials. If anything, this is more like speculating that there is a way to create energy from sunlight using plants as an existence proof of the possibility of doing so. More specifically, this is a bet that an existing physical phenomenon can be replicated using a different substrate.