FREEMAN'S MIND: EPISODE 61

[DarkSaber]

But how does the teleporter know to only transport organic matter by whatever means? This is a valid point raised by Ross. Wouldn't the teleporter start acting like a vacuum cleaner and suck out all the air because it opens to a tiny rock that is Xen, which has negligible gravity and no atmosphere?

[Kold]

Indeed, that was a valid point raised by Ross.

[Alyxx Thorne]

I'm thoroughly entertained by how much Freeman is analyzing the science behind the teleporters. Personally when I play Half-Life I just go along with it, not really questioning how it works.

[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.

 

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.

 

He loses momentum almost instantaneously. The "platforms" don't move between when you teleport and when you arrive. Even if the electrical signals are along a defined path, if he's losing momentum he's losing it all. Technically, Freeman dies ANYWAY because the matter is being reconstructed on the other end. Either Freeman has momentum conserved and lives, or he does not have momentum and dies. I seriously do not think that it's a 50/50 scenario.

[Cleytinho]

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.

 

He loses momentum almost instantaneously. The "platforms" don't move between when you teleport and when you arrive. Even if the electrical signals are along a defined path, if he's losing momentum he's losing it all. Technically, Freeman dies ANYWAY because the matter is being reconstructed on the other end. Either Freeman has momentum conserved and lives, or he does not have momentum and dies. I seriously do not think that it's a 50/50 scenario.

 

Scenario 1 explains how he could gradually lose momentum without the platforms moving much. I'm not going to say anything else because i'm not really well versed in this area.

[HLPrincess]

Subs up!

Subs added!

[kingkolton9]

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.

 

He loses momentum almost instantaneously. The "platforms" don't move between when you teleport and when you arrive. Even if the electrical signals are along a defined path, if he's losing momentum he's losing it all. Technically, Freeman dies ANYWAY because the matter is being reconstructed on the other end. Either Freeman has momentum conserved and lives, or he does not have momentum and dies. I seriously do not think that it's a 50/50 scenario.

 

Scenario 1 explains how he could gradually lose momentum without the platforms moving much. I'm not going to say anything else because i'm not really well versed in this area.

 

Essentially, wouldn't scenario one involve time travel? I mean, the person's matter is being torn to shreds, reconstructed, and then momentum is selectively stopped, all the while sending said person back to when they entered the portal, but in a different location. That, or time in the teleportation chamber is just stopped.

 

Now that I think about it, there was the two week delay with the teleporter in Half Life 2, but that further reinforces the fact that Gordon and Alyx were killed. After all, the teleporter in Kleiner's lab could have been off, and they were reconstructed shortly after power was returned.

 

Either way, this is a pointless argument. To each their own.

[danielsangeo]

But how does the teleporter know to only transport organic matter by whatever means? This is a valid point raised by Ross. Wouldn't the teleporter start acting like a vacuum cleaner and suck out all the air because it opens to a tiny rock that is Xen, which has negligible gravity and no atmosphere?

 

There's gravity (or else Freeman wouldn't be able to navigate it, nor would the vorts, headcrabs, agrunts and Gonarch) and there's no reason to believe there's no breathable atmosphere in Xen.

[Ross Scott]

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...

Okay this goes back to the "multiple breakthroughs" line again. I considered that maybe it only detects motion on a certain level, but what level? At the cellular level, who knows fast your cells are moving? Hell I think sneezes are at 100mph. Nerve connections and the brain in general must move pretty damn fast as well. I guess the thing is I don't see how you would cancel one type of momentum, but not the other; additionally I don't see how there would be technology to DISTINGUISH the two or even DETECT the difference in the first place. I really tried to think this one out and I couldn't come up with any scenario where momentum is cancelled AND you come out alive on the other end short of having some positional tracking and computational system way, way beyond anything we could dream about. Let us not forget, Black Mesa still uses giant tape reels on their computers.

[danielsangeo]

It's the work of the G-Man!

[Hühnerdieb]

Ross, thank you man!!! That was an amazing, awesome and mind blowing episode.

 

In many ways perfect and professional work, we get entairtaining, we make ourselfs think "what if?" or "how?" in a way that we dont care if the game is not a real story happened somewhere.

 

To my eyes and personal feeling, you are the only person who did more for half-life than valve itself in the past 5-7 years and you have become a part of it (if you want it or not), people will allways say in the future:

 

"well ok... J.J. Abrams (or how his name is) wanted to make a movie about this game, ok.... that didn't all the time works 100% perfect... many things are in Doom and FarCry movies very different as in the games"

 

but people will remember and talk about you, as the person who gived Gordon a voice, lifestyle, attitude, opinion about alot of stuffs that possibly can happen inside that game or in real life.

Perfect example: you got allways pissed off cause of the tee-cup rides in disneyland, they are designed so in a way if you throw up, you spray many people as possible!!

That had only a connection to the rotating elevators in game, but that is what people need to identify with it... not like the valve-theory of keeping Gordon official voiceless, that worked not so well.

I mean.. we can only imagine duke nukem with the voice that the actor did, sooooo you are Gordons mind!

 

Well done!

 

_______

 

So i did think something, like why someone can stay alive and in tact after that kind of teleportation, if teleportation can somehow happens in our world.

 

I am not an expert, the only physics i know well are game-physics hehehehe! (i am only a 3D-game artist) but can we imagine a possibility of keeping a storage of our material (organic or not) in a way inside our dimension, that the distances between 2 points didnt realy harm, split or tare appart that material?

 

It must be something else, we possibly cannot realize or know, like more then antimatter or make a black hole with a stable event horizon and all that stuffs! Do we know all our dimensions here?

I mean... we as humans, we are the only ones we think with space and time! Can we find something that considers all known physical laws and bee timeless or/and spaceless?

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

[kingkolton9]

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...

Okay this goes back to the "multiple breakthroughs" line again. I considered that maybe it only detects motion on a certain level, but what level? At the cellular level, who knows fast your cells are moving? Hell I think sneezes are at 100mph. Nerve connections and the brain in general must move pretty damn fast as well. I guess the thing is I don't see how you would cancel one type of momentum, but not the other; additionally I don't see how there would be technology to DISTINGUISH the two or even DETECT the difference in the first place. I really tried to think this one out and I couldn't come up with any scenario where momentum is cancelled AND you come out alive on the other end short of having some positional tracking and computational system way, way beyond anything we could dream about. Let us not forget, Black Mesa still uses giant tape reels on their computers.

 

Those are mostly hold outs from the Cold War when Black Mesa was a missile silo (Or was it nuclear generator?). In fact, some tape reels are still used today. Not because of laziness, but because they're more dense than the best hard drive, albeit slower as well. This year Sony developed a tape drive capable of holding 185 Terabytes.

 

Anyway, Ross, for some reason I think you have a degree in Physics. Am I crazy, or are you versed on the subject?

[RandomGuy]

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...

Okay this goes back to the "multiple breakthroughs" line again. I considered that maybe it only detects motion on a certain level, but what level? At the cellular level, who knows fast your cells are moving? Hell I think sneezes are at 100mph. Nerve connections and the brain in general must move pretty damn fast as well. I guess the thing is I don't see how you would cancel one type of momentum, but not the other; additionally I don't see how there would be technology to DISTINGUISH the two or even DETECT the difference in the first place. I really tried to think this one out and I couldn't come up with any scenario where momentum is cancelled AND you come out alive on the other end short of having some positional tracking and computational system way, way beyond anything we could dream about. Let us not forget, Black Mesa still uses giant tape reels on their computers.

 

The answer is in the Nihilanth's brain.

[ThePest179]

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...

Okay this goes back to the "multiple breakthroughs" line again. I considered that maybe it only detects motion on a certain level, but what level? At the cellular level, who knows fast your cells are moving? Hell I think sneezes are at 100mph. Nerve connections and the brain in general must move pretty damn fast as well. I guess the thing is I don't see how you would cancel one type of momentum, but not the other; additionally I don't see how there would be technology to DISTINGUISH the two or even DETECT the difference in the first place. I really tried to think this one out and I couldn't come up with any scenario where momentum is cancelled AND you come out alive on the other end short of having some positional tracking and computational system way, way beyond anything we could dream about. Let us not forget, Black Mesa still uses giant tape reels on their computers.

 

Its got something to do with Xen crystals.

[danielsangeo]

Here's an idea: The entry orbs detect the forward momentum of the entering objects and warp space at the exit orb so that you can cancel forward momentum without canceling the momentum of the entering object.

 

For example: You're going down the road at 55mph on a motorcycle. In front of you, there's a truck going 54mph. The truck has a ramp that nearly touches the ground so you can ride up it into the truck. When you ramp onto the truck, your forward speed, as viewed from a static observer (on the ground) only reduces from 55mph to 54mph, which is barely anything at all--people do it all the time. However, from the vantage point of a moving observer on the truck, you go from 55mph to 1mph very quickly. But the sudden change in momentum does not harm the driver because the forward speed isn't actually going from 55mph to 1mph; it's going from 55mph to 54mph. They proved this on Mythbusters.

 

This could explain how the exit point of the orbs could cancel momentum without harming the transported object, because from an observer outside the 3D space, it would appear that the exit point is moving at nearly the same momentum as the entering object. You're falling into the orb at 45mph? Thankfully the floor at the exit point is "dropping at 45mph" to allow you to safely land without harming yourself.

 

Or it's magic.

[kingkolton9]

Here's an idea: The entry orbs detect the forward momentum of the entering objects and warp space at the exit orb so that you can cancel forward momentum without canceling the momentum of the entering object.

 

For example: You're going down the road at 55mph on a motorcycle. In front of you, there's a truck going 54mph. The truck has a ramp that nearly touches the ground so you can ride up it into the truck. When you ramp onto the truck, your forward speed, as viewed from a static observer (on the ground) only reduces from 55mph to 54mph, which is barely anything at all--people do it all the time. However, from the vantage point of a moving observer on the truck, you go from 55mph to 1mph very quickly. But the sudden change in momentum does not harm the driver because the forward speed isn't actually going from 55mph to 1mph; it's going from 55mph to 54mph. They proved this on Mythbusters.

 

This could explain how the exit point of the orbs could cancel momentum without harming the transported object, because from an observer outside the 3D space, it would appear that the exit point is moving at nearly the same momentum as the entering object. You're falling into the orb at 45mph? Thankfully the floor at the exit point is "dropping at 45mph" to allow you to safely land without harming yourself.

 

Or it's magic.

 

I can agree with that. Curved space does cause time dilatation. Hell, if you stretch the space out enough, the person would appear to be decelerating extremely fast, but to them it's a gradual slowdown.

 

What if the portals are black holes? Instead of deconstructing and repackaging your matter, one would be spaghettified, and somehow "compressed" back down on the other end. Assuming black holes can be made to be non-deadly, I assume one could also find a way to transfer the momentum in a safe way during that "unspaghettification"

[Tastychainsaws]

Been a fan since like, episode six or seven and every day before work I check for a new Freeman's Mind. Coming come like once a month and seeing a new episode is like Christmas. It so weird to level criticisms since this series inspires my own writing and even sense of humor to a certain extent. I just wanted to talk about the things I like seeing in this series.

 

At the portal in the last episode, Freeman's getting hit with fire stuff, grunts at the pain but doesn't mention it. I always kind of liked the immersion factor when he talks about being hit by stuff.

 

Just my two cents. My other thing is I hope the ending is climatic in some way! Just keep doing your shit Ross~!

[Thecommander236]

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...

Okay this goes back to the "multiple breakthroughs" line again. I considered that maybe it only detects motion on a certain level, but what level? At the cellular level, who knows fast your cells are moving? Hell I think sneezes are at 100mph. Nerve connections and the brain in general must move pretty damn fast as well. I guess the thing is I don't see how you would cancel one type of momentum, but not the other; additionally I don't see how there would be technology to DISTINGUISH the two or even DETECT the difference in the first place. I really tried to think this one out and I couldn't come up with any scenario where momentum is cancelled AND you come out alive on the other end short of having some positional tracking and computational system way, way beyond anything we could dream about. Let us not forget, Black Mesa still uses giant tape reels on their computers.

 

The funny thing is that Freeman should be one of the few people who could conceivably come close to understanding the portals. To quote TV Tropes: "His doctoral thesis is ludicrously titled 'Observation of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Entanglement on Supraquantum Structures by Induction Through Nonlinear Transuranic Crystal of Extremely Long Wavelength (ELW) Pulse from Mode-Locked Source Array'. In laymen's terms... looking at teleportation effects on crystals when you fire lasers at them. Which suspiciously sounds like the experiment you are conducting at the start." Of course if you break down that title word for word, it still would not explain how teleportation can stop only forward momentum and not other forms. Maybe the portals are just viscous and slow you down. I mean, they are made with Xen crystals. The portals could be made of crushed crystals suspended in some form of liquid. The liquid and the dust are then suspended by an electromagnet and the crystal particles activated by some sort of infrared laser that's invisible to the naked eye. Doing a quick google search, magnetorheological fluids would be a likely candidate. The wikipedia page even states that these kinds of fluids can used in "dampers and shock absorbers." However, you can walk through the exit portals like they aren't even there, so what the hell?

[RandomGuy]

Those aren't fireballs, they're lightning balls. I'm not sure how else he should have reacted. Since it was previously established that Vortigaunt lightning bolts (which are powerful enough to kill a grown man wearing body armor in a couple hits) somehow don't do anything more than sting Gordon, it should come as no surprise that the weaker attacks from the Controllers don't do anything either, aside from give him brief bits of pain. The Nihilanth, on the other hand...

[kingkolton9]

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...

Okay this goes back to the "multiple breakthroughs" line again. I considered that maybe it only detects motion on a certain level, but what level? At the cellular level, who knows fast your cells are moving? Hell I think sneezes are at 100mph. Nerve connections and the brain in general must move pretty damn fast as well. I guess the thing is I don't see how you would cancel one type of momentum, but not the other; additionally I don't see how there would be technology to DISTINGUISH the two or even DETECT the difference in the first place. I really tried to think this one out and I couldn't come up with any scenario where momentum is cancelled AND you come out alive on the other end short of having some positional tracking and computational system way, way beyond anything we could dream about. Let us not forget, Black Mesa still uses giant tape reels on their computers.

 

The funny thing is that Freeman should be one of the few people who could conceivably come close to understanding the portals. To quote TV Tropes: "His doctoral thesis is ludicrously titled 'Observation of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Entanglement on Supraquantum Structures by Induction Through Nonlinear Transuranic Crystal of Extremely Long Wavelength (ELW) Pulse from Mode-Locked Source Array'. In laymen's terms... looking at teleportation effects on crystals when you fire lasers at them. Which suspiciously sounds like the experiment you are conducting at the start." Of course if you break down that title word for word, it still would not explain how teleportation can stop only forward momentum and not other forms. Maybe the portals are just viscous and slow you down. I mean, they are made with Xen crystals. The portals could be made of crushed crystals suspended in some form of liquid. The liquid and the dust are then suspended by an electromagnet and the crystal particles activated by some sort of infrared laser that's invisible to the naked eye. Doing a quick google search, magnetorheological fluids would be a likely candidate. The wikipedia page even states that these kinds of fluids can used in "dampers and shock absorbers." However, you can walk through the exit portals like they aren't even there, so what the hell?

 

I just thought of something. Xen crystals have negative mass and are only ever seen being transported with heavy-duty machinery. I mean, after all, that's why the giant-ass anti-mass spectrometer was built: To measure their mass. Assuming you could find a dense enough sample of the exotic material, I'd find it plausible.

 

Perhaps, it's the biggest of the breakthroughs needed. IIRC, negative mass violates a few parts of general relativity. Since the exotic crystals are being used, I find it partially believable. I don't think it's a 100% loss of inertia, rather the portal its self is what's slowing you down.

 

Edit: Spelling and grammar.