COGNITIVE FUNCTION
The consciousness of the creature is yet another mystery, all that can be certain is that it retains an inherited survival instinct and enough of the facets of the assimilated creature to pass convincingly as the original. It can be deduced that once assimilated the new creature retains the memories, abilities, mannerisms and possibly the frailties of the host and uses them to sustain its survival. How much of its own consciousness and knowledge of previously assimilated creatures knowledge remain is unclear.
In one case a host was either incapacitated by a pre-existing condition leading to a heart attack or it mimicked the effect well enough to fool the station doctor. In another case a host was apparently knocked unconscious from a concussive blast which mere minutes later also led to a violent attack. It is unclear if this was a forced or planned reaction. Possibly it was intending to play dead in both cases but was forced into action by the defibrillator shocks and in the other case by an opportunity to attack a large group at once.
In another feat of reasoning a Thing destroyed a test that would have led to its exposure and demonstrated awareness of biology and medical practice that would have exposed it. Interestingly the second time this same method was proposed as a test the Thing had seemingly preempted the idea, this is despite the Thing that arrived at the second base was spawned long before the first test was thought of and was in a non-human form. This led to the theory of a shared consciousness between Things, especially as the 2nd sabotage was far harder to pull off covertly and while sowing seeds of misdirection it also exposed its presence.
Another interesting point is while the lack of a metal earring lead to an earlier Things exposure. It is mentioned that The Thing rejects non organic materials from it's host, hence the tooth fillings and earring missing. Conversely it could be proof of someone's humanity. This would have been more clear cut if one of the victims had been assimilated with his nose ring intact instead of killed outright.
It is not known whether the Thing is itself a technological species, whether the ship it arrived on was its own. It could be reasoned that it crashed because the original pilot was killed or sabotaged the craft, and the creature was unable to manage the controls. However, an assimilated human was able to manufacture a small saucer like craft from parts it found on the base, something that was obviously beyond his human understanding. Assimilated humans have been seen operating vehicles and equipment their human counterpart would have knowledge of.
