If intelligence is just an emergent property of a complex-enough system we won't need more than brute force. This seems a very reasonable hypothesis considering the wetware prior-art, so I wouldn't be as quick to say he's wrong.
What I'm skeptical about are the predictions that we will reach something more intelligent than humans (how to quantify intelligence even?), that it will improve our culture, and other sci-fi stuff...
Even if it turns out the predictions are wrong, the brute force can reach something interesting anyway, not human-like intelligence, but something new and complementary.
