Why did the thing allow it's blood to be tested?
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RynoII — 9 years ago(October 04, 2016 05:32 PM)
Oh okay, but the human characters make several points about how The Thing wants to make it's way to more populated areas, and about how The Thing is trying to build an aircraft, and fly out of there. They say this like The Thing has an agenda, or goal in mind.
If The Thing is just a principle, then how can it have this goal? -
stranglewood — 9 years ago(October 04, 2016 06:04 PM)
The Thing is most likely a single cell organism, and it's goal on the most fundamental level is to imitate. Is it conscious? I'd say no, but that's debatable.
However, even when it imitates, it may not possess a mind as we know it. It BUILDS minds as it sees fit, based on the millions of creatures or organisms its imitated. It likely exists in a dream state, even in the beings it imitates, forever beneath the surface.
My point to you is, it's drive to imitate may not necessarily be wedded to consciousness, it's just what it does. I may be wrong though. -
stranglewood — 9 years ago(October 04, 2016 08:43 PM)
The Blair imitation that built the ship, was in fact not Blair, but the Thing manufacturing the proper Alien consciousness that would be intelligent enough to build such a vehicle.
The Thing has an infinite amount of consciousnesses stored within it, from all of the creatures it has imitated. It can call these creatures up at will, and construct a brain able to control these creatures at will. These souls are trapped in limbo, forever a part of creature that has no conscious. This is the particular horror of the Thing. -
stranglewood — 9 years ago(October 04, 2016 09:10 PM)
No, it used Blair's nervous system, and an alien brain. Blair wouldn't have the ability to build the ship, so it shunted aside Blair's consciousness, and replaced it with an alien consciousness capable of constructing the ship. This is what being an imitation means; the victim is still alive, but not able to discern that they've been imitated. The Thing is the uncertainty, the literal thing in the back of the victims mind, and the source of their subconscious unease. This is why it behaves more like a principle, or a singularly.
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stranglewood — 9 years ago(October 05, 2016 12:21 PM)
It used an alien being's consciousness to build the ship, not Blair's. The imitated Palmer's consciousness guided Palmer to do what he would have normally done in that situation, which is to be tied up. Palmer was imitated PERFECTLY - anything less would be noticed as such. So, in that situation, with Macready threatening to kill him if he didn't comply( a threat to thing as well, but beneath the
surface),Palmer did what he would have done normally, which is to be tied up.
Blair is another example. Blair -
stranglewood — 9 years ago(October 05, 2016 12:26 PM)
Blair is another example. Blair did not know he was imitation either, and could not think of a test ( the Thing wouldn't let him), so he came to the conclusion that there was no way to test, and decided to isolate the camp. When alone, the Thing pushed aside his consciousness and replaced it with a being that could build a ship so it could escape. It was Blair in appearance, but not Blair's brain. Blair is walking around in below zero temperature with no coat on, he's clearly not Blair anymore.
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Globalcharmer — 9 years ago(December 30, 2016 12:36 AM)
Read the original story. The Things knew that they were Things, not human.
https://archive.org/stream/WhoGoesThere_414/WhoGoesThere.txt -
BlablaBlackSheep — 2 years ago(May 01, 2023 07:35 AM)
There wasn’t much else It could do. Looking at it from The Thing’s perspective, it didn’t know what Mac had planned until it was already tied up. The Thing knew it was trapped with no escape and waited until the last possible second to reveal itself and try to take out as many humans as possible before inevitably being destroyed. It was cornered.