FREEMAN'S MIND: EPISODE 61

[Blaperture Mesa]

It's weird to me how Gordon doesn't entertain the possibility that he's the last hope for humanity even after he's told directly that he is. He knows that the aliens can teleport. He knows they can't be contained. He knows that the army is too incompetent to do anything. At the very least, America is in trouble. And his response to being told this is "you can just shoot 'em". Gordon's selfish, but he's not an idiot. In fact, his ego should make him more likely to embrace the idea that he's the hero the world needs.

 

Buuuuut what we got was still pretty funny.

[Commander Shepard]

It's weird to me how Gordon doesn't entertain the possibility that he's the last hope for humanity even after he's told directly that he is. He knows that the aliens can teleport. He knows they can't be contained. He knows that the army is too incompetent to do anything. At the very least, America is in trouble. And his response to being told this is "you can just shoot 'em". Gordon's selfish, but he's not an idiot. In fact, his ego should make him more likely to embrace the idea that he's the hero the world needs.

 

Buuuuut what we got was still pretty funny.

 

I don't think Freeman grasps the fact that the Earth is screwed unless he saves it.

 

1. He could believe that the portals through which they come are located only in Black Mesa. All the military has to do is contain the aliens in there. In this case, all he has to do is leave (he thinks this, anyways). This is backed up by the fact that, throughout the series, Freeman has seen the use of superior firepower to be the solution to pretty much every problem.

 

2. Freeman is pretty egocentric; I don't think he's too worried about everyone else, even though the condition of the planet does affect him.

 

3. Even though the scientist and the guard say he's the only one who can fix the situation, I very much doubt he believes them.

Edited October 22, 2014 by Guest (see edit history)

[Ross Scott]

I don't Freeman grasps the fact that the Earth is screwed unless he saves it.

Well the irony is you "save" it in HL1 then in HL2 the Earth is still screwed. It's really not until Episode 2 that there's any hint that you're not involved in a futile battle.

[RandomGuy]

"Screwed"? What are you talking about? The Seven Hour was just what Earth needed. Now all our energy is renewable, there's enough food for everyone, and crime is at its lowest rate in recorded history. It's a total U-turn.

[Blaperture Mesa]

I don't Freeman grasps the fact that the Earth is screwed unless he saves it.

Well the irony is you "save" it in HL1 then in HL2 the Earth is still screwed. It's really not until Episode 2 that there's any hint that you're not involved in a futile battle.

 

You can always overthrow a regime you don't like, even if you're outnumbered and outgunned! Don't you remember the plucky young optimists from Les Miserables?

 

 

A lot of people are actually surprised that that revolution didn't succeed. It's weird.

 

[scott155]

I know the "big orange fuck" bit was predictable, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed in it's absence. Still, great episode and I'm looking forward to Xen (and Half-Life 2, if you're up for it).

[Woah_G!]

 

Anyway, you can't really take a game like Half-Life too seriously, it doesn't hold up to serious scrutiny, Valve masks most of this with a lack of information. The game is so outrageously sparse on details, that's the very reason a character like Freeman can even exist, they've left so much open.

word.

[Kold]

Engineer (and physics enthusiast) here. Why is momentum conservation (or lack thereof) making you think Freeman should die?

[danielsangeo]

Subs up!

[kingkolton9]

Engineer (and physics enthusiast) here. Why is momentum conservation (or lack thereof) making you think Freeman should die?

 

Because if momentum isn't conserved, then all the neurons in his brain will stop firing. It would literally give him brain death.

[Artlav]

Considering the big discussion - i'm surprised everyone forgot about the part where he jumps to the scientist at the controls, asks him to teleport him to MIT, and gets an "all right, i can open the portal now" in response.

 

I just tested it with the GoldSrc game. It's the exact same time from when Freeman walks through the door to the time the portal opens.

I bet the problem is that time flies at a different rate when you are observing and when you are doing the thing.

I.e. it takes about two seconds for the parachute to fully open when you watch a video, but it takes what feels like a minute when you're the one hanging under it.

 

Because if momentum isn't conserved, then all the neurons in his brain will stop firing. It would literally give him brain death.

Why would they?

Wouldn't it be more logical for them to be frozen solid, since all the kinetic energy (that is, momentum of the atoms' thermal motion) gets removed?

[kingkolton9]

Considering the big discussion - i'm surprised everyone forgot about the part where he jumps to the scientist at the controls, asks him to teleport him to MIT, and gets an "all right, i can open the portal now" in response.

 

I just tested it with the GoldSrc game. It's the exact same time from when Freeman walks through the door to the time the portal opens.

I bet the problem is that time flies at a different rate when you are observing and when you are doing the thing.

I.e. it takes about two seconds for the parachute to fully open when you watch a video, but it takes what feels like a minute when you're the one hanging under it.

 

Because if momentum isn't conserved, then all the neurons in his brain will stop firing. It would literally give him brain death.

Why would they?

Wouldn't it be more logical for them to be frozen solid, since all the kinetic energy (that is, momentum of the atoms' thermal motion) gets removed?

 

Either way, with his blood no longer moving (and being frozen), his neurons no longer moving (and being frozen), and really every other part of his body being stopped and frozen, I have a hard time believing he's going to survive.

[consistenthistorian]

Awesome episode again Ross, good job.

 

Re Momentum and teleporters, I think Freeman has got a bit muddled. There are two types of momentum to consider here, the momentum of his centre of mass (CoM) and the momentum of his constituent parts in the frame where his CoM momentum is zero. Freeman has experience so far that teleporters don't conserve CoM momentum, but that doesn't mean they kill ALL momentum. I can't see an obvious problem with teleporters cancelling CoM momentum*, so "speedy thing goes in, stationary thing comes out", but there are some big problems with cancelling ALL momentum (someone already mentioned that motion of particles is basically temperature, so Freeman would freeze solid, but there's also the issue that it would violate the Heisenberg uncertainty principle...)

 

* I mean, you'd need to shunt it somewhere, but this seems the least of your worries if you were actually trying to design a teleporter...

[GordonFreeman]

Just finished the episode, Ross. Very awesome, as always. For some reason though I had exceeding trouble just getting your video to load for more than 2 minutes. As in: It took me a good hour to finish because the damned video would load, play for a minute, then freeze. So I'd reload the page, find the part I left off, lather, rinse, repeat.

 

Why did you speed up the teleportation sequence?

 

I think this is similar to the CarnEvil thing where someone convinced someone else he was wrong about the game Ross was playing. I asked the question, and he took it as my belief.

[DarkSaber]

I think the teleporters can be explained by the String Theory (not sure if Freeman would like that!) and not classical mechanics. Just create a gravitational field so strong that it rips the fabric of space and time (I think Stephen Hawking said something about this in his book) and create a worm hole

[VeryShyPerson]

In Half-Life 2, there was talk about compressing the Xen Relay and stuff. I couldn't understand it too good though and that stuff Freeman wouldn't know about I dont think.

[Commander Shepard]

I don't Freeman grasps the fact that the Earth is screwed unless he saves it.

Well the irony is you "save" it in HL1 then in HL2 the Earth is still screwed. It's really not until Episode 2 that there's any hint that you're not involved in a futile battle.

 

Actually, I believe killing Nihilanth is what draws the Combine to Earth all the more quickly. So, not only do you not save Earth, but you bring about that dystopia even faster.

[Kold]

Engineer (and physics enthusiast) here. Why is momentum conservation (or lack thereof) making you think Freeman should die?

 

Because if momentum isn't conserved, then all the neurons in his brain will stop firing. It would literally give him brain death.

 

That's a misconception -- as is your post about blood stopping. The blood circulation system is a closed pump system -- it is virtually unaffected by external velocities and can only be affected by the most extreme of accelerations (and even then, it should recover as long as no damage was made to the heart or main arteries). The only reasonable thing that could affect the blood supply circulating would be a stoppage of the heart, which now gets us to the brain. The brain is not a mechanical entity -- that is to say there are no moving parts except electric signals, and these electric signals move along very defined paths. That is to say that a brain is similar to a phone. You can do all sorts of things to a phone and it will still work fine because the electric signals on the chip inside have very defined paths. You can travel in a car with a phone and come to extreme stops when an asshole hits the brakes in front of you and the phone will continue to function billions of times a second in clockwork precision as if nothing had happened (as too does your brain).

 

The only thing I could give you as a plausible reason for momentum loss killing Freeman would be if the momentum was lost nearly instantaneously, which would impart an enormous acceleration on poor Gordon and maybe rip an artery out of his heart. However, there are ways to escape this conclusion, such that it is not true that there are no imaginable scenarios in which Gordon could survive:

 

1. Teleportation invokes relativistic effects which causes simultaneity to go out the window, such that teleportation does not actually happen instantaneously for the object (or person) being teleported, though it may appear so to any scientist or observer witnessing the object (or person) being teleported. This would allow for a very gradual removal of momentum, thereby causing absolutely zero harm to the teleportee.

2. Teleportation causes a blackout of Gordon's brain during the process (this makes particular sense if you imagine that his brain is disassembled and reassembled), such that the process may actually take many seconds or longer, giving his body plenty of time for a gradual loss of kinetic energy.

Edited October 22, 2014 by Guest (see edit history)

[VeryShyPerson]

If any of you haven't, this is worth a read:

http://www.members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/

[Kold]

Also, kinetic energy of the type that moves you from place to place is not the same as thermal kinetic energy. Thermal kinetic energy is the average kinetic energy of molecules, making it a microscopic statistical phenomenon only. Only then does heat arise. To lose the type of momentum that transports your entire body will not freeze you... if you don't believe me get into a car with a closed bottle of water with a thermometer in it. Speed up to 100km/h and record the temperature. Then come to a stop and measure the temperature again. You will find that the water is at the same temperature. If you were, however, to take each and every molecule and stop them moving amongst themselves then you would have lowered the temperature. However, this is not what stopping a car does.