>Standing around at midnight eating a small bowl of cereal for a midnight snack
>Keep seeing a single carpenter ant running around in circles in the same area out the periphery of my vision
>Watch it
>It keeps turning clockwise (to it's right) whenever it gets to the stove
>Finish cereal and put bowl away
>Continue watching this ant
>It keeps going in circles (sometimes squares?) making the same right turn before the stove every time
>It's circles/squares get bigger (while occasionally shrinking briefly) until they encompass most of the kitchen, but it still ALWAYS turns right at the stove, 100% of the time, even after it begins to occasionally turn left at the door before continuing right
>It started out running smoothly but it's speed gets more slow and jerky with brief milliseconds where it gets faster, like it's dragging it's ass or lagging IRL
>I am just standing there, occasionally squatting to get a closer look, looking at this thing retread the same or a similar path over and over and over again for 20+ minutes
>Eventually it actually climbs a bag it never climbed before and I finally feel okay to walk away
Why was it doing this? Why ALWAYS turn right at the stove? There were three or four times where it got to the same area before the stove, shifted it's body left, but then turned all the way around to go right before ever moving left, like it knew what it was doing.
I got this feeling of existential dread watching it. It kinda fucked me up.

>>5019627 (OP)
The ant was lost.
Ants walk in an expanding spiral trying to find pheromone trails or landmarks when that happens.

>>5019639
Cool

>>5019627 (OP)
cool that you observed an ant for like half an hour, I wouldn't have the attention span for stuff like that anymore

>>5019627 (OP)
It probably lost track of where it was. No other ants had been and was following its own pheromones infinity. Even animals do retarded shit like this. Like turkeys doing follow the leader but the leader makes a circle and ends up behind the tail and begins following it.