Check the comment by BrightBlueJim. I too have thought that the common description of "The Thing" was incomplete. To make it work well enough to be practical it

Check the comment by BrightBlueJim. I too have thought that the common description of "The Thing" was incomplete. To make it work well enough to be practical it would of required some non-linear element. Current bug detectors explicitly detect non-linear elements. A hilarious practical joke involves adding diodes to the concrete mix for a high security facility. Back in the cold war the Russians actually did this to the Americans in Moscow.