Dartmouth College theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser offers to explain why intelligence is rare in the universe:

We are the only humans in this universe. And if we consider what we have learned from the history of life on Earth, chances are that intelligent life is extremely rare. While intelligence is clearly an asset in the struggle for survival among species, it is not a purpose of evolution; evolution has no purpose.

Until it becomes intelligent, life is happy just replicating. With intelligence, it will be unhappy just replicating. This, in a nutshell, is the essence of the human condition.

Putting all this together, we propose that we are indeed chemically connected to the rest of the cosmos, and that we share the same basis for life as any other hypothetical living thing. At the same time, we are unique, and so are all other living creatures. Life is an amazing force. Starting from a carbon-based code and a common genetic ancestor, it can create a staggering diversity of wonders — in this world, and possibly in others.

Marcelo Gleiser, “We are the only humans in the universe” at Big Think (May 4, 2022)

Well then, human intelligence is not simply a product of evolution because natural selection does not in any way explain the existence of human intelligence.

Must be something else. Glad we settled that.

You may also wish to read: Study: Science fiction not as strange as quantum physics fact. At least, that’s what we can assume from a failed effort to disprove physicist Eugene Wigner’s thought experiment. The research (and the QBism that resulted) eliminates the possibility that the mind is just an illusion. Apart from observers’ minds, there is no knowledge.