Evolution is blind, like stockfish.

In particular, evolution is blind to pain.

I noticed, when playing with stockfish, how it is blind. It is vastly more intelligent than me, but it is blind. Sometimes, it will not do the checkmate in one, since it doesn't seem to salivate for the dopamine; its evaluation has rated (for whatever reason) a different 2 move path to the same outcome higher, and that’s what it does.

We’re driven by pleasure and pain, and no doubt evolution is aware of our preferences, nay has shaped them. But evolution itself seems to be blind to pain.

Is evolution blind to pleasure? Unlike pain, where it is clear to see that evolution doesn’t care 1 cent whether or not its vehicles of progress endure pain unnecessarily, I can’t think of an equivalent telltale of its pleasure preference.

In fact, we’re driven, while it is unclear if such a teleology should be attributed to the forces that drive our drives.