Does intelligence have long-term survival value?

If life & evolution has no other function than to keep its existence, then I presume that intelligence do have a survival value. Intelligence permits its owner to know what might be coming. If an intelligent life-form realized that it is driving itself into extinction, then it can stop whatever it had been doing. Sounds like sustainable development? Unintelligent beings deal poorly with excess numbers; I've seen a mold (Rhizopus) colony overcrowd itself to death in a Petri dish. If only the mold knew that the whole colony would be dead if it didn't stop reproducing, it would stop doing so.