Where Does It Go?

Previous Section: Metamorphosis

If the Thing is a singularity in the mind, in the shape of amnesia, then where, in the mind, does this go? This is not as hopelessly arbitrary a question as one might think. For remember that it obeys the principle of least action. In this, then, we should look for the most elegant solution, as scientists do. But first a corollary question: Can a Thing undo itself? If MacReady were a Thing, would he have discovered the test, and so unwittingly exposed himself, in a snafu similar to Norris unwittingly suffering a heart attack?

For the answer to this, we turn to the sky. The flying saucer which brought the Thing here, had to have been a product of cognition, in the same way that a rocket ship is. Thus, the Thing did not original the design of the spaceship! It may have copied plans, and it may have even built the ship, alone or collectively, but the actual principle allowing the ship to break the light barrier and reach Earth, is characteristically cognitive. In other words, the Thing is proof that extraterrestrial human-like intelligence existed in the universe, at some time, whether or not it still exists today. So if it could build, why did it crash-land?

Because it cannot generate valid discoveries of universal principle in its own mind, it would have to rely on it imitations to do this. Yet the faculty of cognition itself, is the only thing in the universe capable of forming the hypothesis by which its nature can be discovered. This is MacReady’s genius. He used cognition to hypothesize the Thing’s reproductive principle, which he later proved in a scientific proof-of-principle experiment. His capacity to do this, is marvelously established in his very first scene, whereby he enjoys chess, but upon being told he has lost, /flanks the problem/ by ignoring the game’s axioms and killing the computer with a glass of iced whiskey. Mac isn’t just a rebel "playing by his own rules", he’s a thinker accomplishing work through his knowledge of physical principles (as electricity). This alone qualifies him as the best candidate for group leader in a crisis.

For the Thing to use an imitation to discover a principle, it would have to allow that imitation free will, and so risk cognitive dissonance. And there’s the answer. The ship careers through space, out of control, as if whomever flying it is not quite sane. This doesn’t mean that anyone was at the controls at all. There may have been a fight, there may have been no one conscious on board, the ship may have been damaged from its flight through space, may have been built incorrectly, or a special circumstance may have arisen [9] which the ship couldn’t correct for. Regardless, the curvature of the situation should be clear: When the Thing is confronted with the cognitive faculty, eventually the situation will fall apart, and the Thing will be unable to apply cognition.

With this in mind, the Thing was almost certainly conditioned by its previous encounters (two, at least), to situate itself as a curvature, overlaying the cognitive faculty. This is the most elegant place to hide, because (1) in most people it is relatively undeveloped or unfamiliar anyway, (2) it is the only thing which can think up the test, and (3) is what, in the mind, most naturally resembles the Thing itself, as a singularity, thus taking the least action to imitate. Instead of merely lurking arbitrarily in memory where that attack-hour used to be, like a black spot on the mind’s eye causing one to wonder what contaminant reached the eyeball, the Thing produces an amnesia by behaving as if it were the cognitive faculty throughout that time – it leaves its signature as a singularity, so to speak. Since the resultant "memory-hole" sprung from a singularity, and since the mind only recognizes its own faculty, it mistakes the Thing in its mind for cognition, and mistakes the "shadow" in its memory, for the work of cognition, and therefore unproblematic [10]. The mote in the mind’s eye, aims toward the blind spot. That this match is not perfect, is the source of victim unease.

Were MacReady a Thing, then, his cognition would be overlaid by the Thing, and inoperative by definition. This is why MacReady said "Now I’ll show you what I already know." This wasn’t just egoism. He had realized, intuitively, even if he didn’t explicate it to anyone, that if he were a Thing, he would never have come up with that test. He knew it, because he intuitively knew that his test would work (cf. his preconscious apprehension at testing Palmer’s blood), even if he didn’t rationally know it [11].

It also shows why, in the first comic book sequel (The Thing From Another World, Vol. 1) he felt the need to test himself upon awakening aboard the whaler. He knew only his ability to generate a universal physical principle proved he was not a Thing. Rather short of time to experiment anew or take in a Classical play, he simply applied the test and prayed. If he was infected and didn’t know it, it would be in character to conduct a blood test in private, for if the test result was positive, he would be devoured by cognitive dissonance, and then simply clean up the blood, and proceed to assimilate the crew. The Thing would have neither need nor means to deceive its own imitation in this way, as stopping Mac would have been just another means to cognitive dissonance, and the curve itself wasn’t advanced far enough along (e.g. no victim present), to produce said dissonance to summon the needed intention.

Next Section: Reproduction