> I'm struggling to find the right description

I think you're circling the concept of a "soul". It is the reason that, in non-communicative disabled people, we still see a life.

I've wanted to make an art piece. It would be a chatbox claiming to connect you to the first real intelligence, but that intelligence would be non-communicative. I'd assure you that it is the most intelligent being, that it had a soul, but that it just couldn't write back.

Intelligence and Soul is not purely measurable phenomenon. A man can do nothing but stupid things, say nothing but outright lies, and still be the most intelligent person. Intelligence is within.