The Big Sur Sneeze

This has happened to me a few times. As I’m using my 2019 16" MBP, it lets out, at some random moment, a startlingly aggressive “Fehhhhh,” and then it shuts down.

It sounds as if the fan goes to 11 for about a second, and then it turns silent and dark.

To be clear: it’s completely unexpected. This is not happening when I shut down the computer. It happens whenever… it wants? Is bored? Is tired? I dunno.

So far I’ve seen this only on one laptop, and that laptop is running Big Sur. I tweeted about it, and found that I’m not the only person who sees this. James Dempsey calls it “the Big Sur Sneeze.”