Beware the judas goat!

3 days ago, for those who missed it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33655215

Ongoing (still?), in China, in case you missed it:

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/a-flock-of-sheep-has-been-wa...

Also happens in, for example, ants[0], or any other animal that does follow-the-leader without a timeout mechanism like boredom.

Humans exhibit the same general behaviour, but followers are more (read, at all) likely to notice they're going in a circle and break off. (Usually quite quickly.)

0: youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGlzoT0sLaM

-- newsweek spoke to a sheep expert who says they're bored and pissed off --

https://www.newsweek.com/mystery-sheep-circle-china-12-days-...

I get that reference. For context - https://www.npr.org/2005/08/09/4791878/common-intruders-thre...

Collective intelligence sounds like a good thing but in this case the intelligence part is a bit suspect