The human homing-to-herd instinct becomes fatal against engineered predators

Evidence

This cycle unnaturally exacerbates and intensifies the natural orientation toward the group. And although we all share in this disposition to varying degrees, it is most pronounced in the stages of life that we call adolescence and emerging adulthood. Ethologists call this orientation “homing to the herd,” an adaptation of certain species, such as passenger pigeons and herring, that home to the crowd rather than to a particular territory. In the confrontation with human predators, however, this instinct has proven fatal. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1486

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the ethological term ‘homing to the herd’ and its evolutionary logic.
• XREF: Connects to surveillance-as-predation framing and reads against risk-aversion and behavioral-economics treatments of herd behavior. — connects to: Predators evolve counter-tactics that exploit weapon-costly prey — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 306; External predators exploit internal division by merely waiting — , A Year of World Stories, 5935; Ethical-robot rhetoric is a Trojan horse that lowers moral barriers to killer robots — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 669 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• External predators exploit internal division by merely waiting #expands (0.82) — , A Year of World Stories, 5935
• Predators evolve counter-tactics that exploit weapon-costly prey #expands (0.80) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 306
• Ethical-robot rhetoric is a Trojan horse that lowers moral barriers to killer robots #exemplifies (0.80) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 669