The Thing - Can someone explain...

[Jeyl]

Is each Thing an individual or a part of a collective intelligence?

I would argue it's a bit of both. It's only when a Thing is separated from itself that it becomes an individual. Otherwise it wouldn't be able to control all those trillions of little Things and if it shared a collective intelligence, they would be in constant contact with each other and most likely share each other's feelings like pain. I think

 

[Galactus]

I wonder if Things communicate by touch, memories stored on a DNA level.

 

[Laspector]

I'm not convinced that a tiny cell of the Thing can assimilate an entire human. If it was that easy, all the Thing would have to do is spit on someone. I mean, every time it transforms the amount of blood, goo, slime ect comes out like an out of control hose. The way I see it, the Thing has a pretty small life span. The smaller it is, the shorter it lives. So a single cell Thing would be dead by the time it assimilated enough cells to control a human host. The only way it can prolong it's life and reproduce at the same time is through assimilation. If the Thing cannot assimilate something within a certain amount of time, it will die. This is why I think the Thing willingly freezes itself after it crashes.

This is what I use to explain the Thing's sudden spontaneous attacks. If all the Thing wanted to do was hide, why would it attack in an environment where it's clearly at a disadvantage? I see the Thing attacking in these situations because it needs to assimilate in order to survive. Other times it feels the need to sacrifice a big chunk of itself so a part of it can get away and assimilate someone else like the tied up prisoners.

Again, I know it doesn't match up with everything, it's just the theory I use.

I actually like this theory. I don't think I've ever heard a discussion on what a Thing eats. I mean all creatures must eat in order to survive so maybe assimilation is the Thing's way of eating--it's main way of surviving.

Good point.