Carbon chauvinism

Carbon chauvinism is a neologism meant to disparage the assumption that the chemical processes of hypothetical extraterrestrial life must be constructed primarily from carbon (organic compounds) because as far as is known, carbon's chemical and thermodynamic properties render it far superior to all other elements at forming molecules used in living organisms.

The expression "carbon chauvinism" is also used to criticize the idea that artificial intelligence can't in theory be sentient or truly intelligent because the underlying matter isn't biological.