I've been doing some math.
The probability of wasting a self scan is 5/6 (83.3%) on day 1. Ignoring the possibility of character death, the probability of wasting a self scan on day 2 is 81/110: about 73.6%. The probability of wasting a self-scan on day 3 took me two pages of work and comes to 2831/4500, or about 62.9%.
But actually, there are two tests each day; let's assume that we randomly select one person out of the 12, only excluding the person who's self-testing that day. Taken together, the chance that neither test finds a thing is 68.18% on day 1, 53.55% on day 2, and 40.03% on day 3. So, assuming we're self-testing, it will be the 6th scan of the game before we have better-than-even chances at finding a thing.
It turns out that I'm not capable of calculating odds for the scenario in which we ensure that every test is on a subject that's never been tested before. If we assume that every potential target for assimilation is equally likely, regardless of whether they've been scanned or not, then we'd have much better chances of nailing a Thing than under the previous scenario, but this would require us to commit to the course of action without the Things realizing we'd done so. So, I'm more inclined to always scan a new target, but I'm not committed to it, and I don't really care who we scan first, as long as we scan
someone.
I don't like how free and easy Windows is with his dynamite. Fuchs, what you got against MacReady?
He hasn't posted since the initial roll-call. We can talk about the merits and dangers of different philosophies of testing until we all die of consumption by Things, but our endgame is entirely dependent on people with weapons knowing who is and is not suspicious. If you don't participate, the only way to know if you're suspicious or not is to test you. Palmer may be hesitating to go along with the self-test, but at least he's talking, and his refusal will be one more data point for the guys with guns to consider. Meanwhile, there are people in here that we basically know nothing about. We should test them.