Was MacReady a human? How about Childs? Ambiguous ending 1982 film THE THING

-Long introduction-
So, I’ve posted before, “Is Deckard a human?…” thread before.
But, since Ridley Scott officially announced that Rick Deckard is a replicant, and the sequel. “Blade Runner 2049” came out, I kinda lost interest in the “story” part of the “Blade Runner” film universe.
(In case you haven’t read Philip K Dick’s original novel, Deckard is clearly a human in the book. Not only that, the character of Rachel is totally different.
You WILL NOT LIKE her, in the book.
So, the world of Blade Runner (created by Ridley Scott) and the world of “Do androids dream of electric sheep?” , are two different things.
Totally different.
Not just the story takes place in L.A. in the movie (in the novel, it is San Francisco), Deckared is divorced in the film but still married in the book.
Simply put, Ridley Scott borrowed some characters and some back ground setting from the novel and created his own world.

Enter “THE THING(1982)”, yeah, it was released ’82. Same as first Blade Runner film.
These days, I actually enjoy rewatching THE THING way more than rewatching Blade Runner.
Story wise, THE THING is more interesting with deeper meaning than Blade Runner.
Why? Probably because John Carpenter didn’t have the kind of pressure from the sponsors and producers, like Ridley Scott had with Blade Runner.
(He was forced to add Deckard’s voice over and uplifting ending.)
THE THING is purely about tension and the sense of paranoia.
No bullshit such as “integrated love romance side story ”. (NOT a single female character in the story.)
No flashback to the memories in the past.
NO ONE talks about their families.

Anyway, I saw the film back in ’82, when it first came out. Then,I’ve watched, rewatched this movie many times.
I was under the impression of “Both Mac and Childs were human, And they are going to die, shortly after the movie ends”, for so many years.
It’s just recently I started questioning (to myself) if it really is.

First, how accurate / meaningful the “blood heating test”?
Who came up with this idea?

Second, the “intelligence” level of “the thing”.
Because of the way “the thing” was first introduced in the story, we (viewer audiences) tend to look at “the thing” as a gory monster without any brain /intelligence, just brutal killing creature.
BUT, THEY ARE NOT.(Remember the space ship discovered at Norwegian base, and the one that Blair / the thing was building?)

I really like how this film ends.
And, I really appreciate that John Carpenter didn’t add any bullshit talk to the story.
(Both MacReady and Childs know they are going to die, in 20 minutes or so.
And both of them are so calm, don’t talk about their families and friends, their life outside of Antarctica. (For that matter, NONE of the characters do.)

There are some interesting videos on YouTube.
This is the latest found. It’s so long, I haven’t finished watching yet.
(I’m at about 1HR24MIN. right now.)