“...not if we are talking about an organism with a larger capacity brain capable of intelligent thought.”
Isn’t that only if they think with brains and that they do so with the same size ratios and efficiency as the examples we know about so far? I mean, it seems to me that it is still the ‘example of one’ problem.
Freegards
Even if you are talking from an evolutionary standpoint you don’t start at a higher state organism, but you go from single cell... It’s still a higher energy requirement for “something” that “thinks” that must be met by “something else” above and beyond fueling whatever “body” requirements this organism may have.
Like I said in the book recommendation, if you have any interest in the subject beyond gee whiz what about x, I would suggest reading The Privileged Planet.