We should separate between what actual organisms do and the way they actually evolve, with the niches and strategies that are available, in principle, for such organisms to occupy and perform.
Unicellular and multicellular organisms were always a possibility on earth, just as photosynthesis, fur, feathers and books. The same happens with the kind of strategies that humans use to cope with the world (symbolic language, culture, mathematics), was already a possibility millions of years ago. That niche already existed as a possible way to deal with the world, even if no one would ever fill it. All these strategies make sense to arise in planets, but there is nothing we know of the world that makes us think that life should be dependent on planets. Life arises on planets but why should it stay forever dependent on the sun's energy and the planetary landscape?
Immortal beings with expanded minds were a possibility from the very start. They are not dependent on the sun's energy, they have built their own bodies and minds. We can stop them for a while during our time on our planet, but we cannot avoid the possibility. And even if we are able to stop their appearance on our planet for the duration of life on earth (before the sun gets too hot - about one billion years or more), we will certainly not be able to stop their appearance and development throughout the universe. And the thing is: evolution will likely not stop with them either, only our horizon.