The problem here is that boredom is bound to be is one of the basic AI drives. It will emerge as an instrumental value in practically any goal-directed intelligent system - since getting stuck doing the same thing repeatedly is a common bug that prevents agents from attaining their goals. If you have to do science, make technology, build spaceships, etc, etc, it is important to explore, and not to the same thing all the time - and goal-directed agents will realise that.
I think curiosity and the desire to do things that work would be better as motivations than avoiding boredom. Sometimes the best strategy is to keep doing the same thing (for example, the professional poker player who needs to keep playing the best known strategy even though they're in a year-long losing streak).
I think curiosity and the desire to do things that work would be better as motivations than avoiding boredom.
Do you have any speculations about why evolution apparently disagrees?
It makes for good Less Wrong introductory material to point people to, since there are lots of people who won't read long article online but will listen to a podcast on the way to work: LINK.
Apologies for the self-promotion, but it could hardly be more relevant to Less Wrong...