If, somehow, brains could read other brains directly, there would indeed be a very strong evolutionary advantage to it. In Asimov’s example, even a simple version of mind-reading, such as a chicken being able to sense an approaching fox’s brain as it thinks “food, food, food,” would be a huge advantage! Animals of any species that could do rudimentary mind-reading should survive much better than ones that couldn’t, and should pass on their mind-reading gene quite effectively. Do you see the problem? The fact that there is a debate at all over whether mind-reading exists suggests that it doesn’t. If it were a real phenomenon, versions of it should be widespread, the way normal vision is. We would expect it to be everywhere . . . not just in a few “special” people with nothing up their sleeves.