Gordon at Innsbruck University

[nokori3byo]

I was reading about current lab experiments in teleportation today and noticed that:

Teams of scientists from the University of Innsbruck and the U. S. National Institute of Standards and Technology worked independently to teleport ions of calcium and beryllium, respectively, in 2004. The two groups used different techniques to achieve similar results under the same basic protocol.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleportation#Teleportation_lab_experiments

I got me thinking...at what point in the HL franchise was it established that Gordon had observed teleportation experiments at Innsbruck? Did we first hear about it from Eli/Judith in HL2 or had there been some mention of it before that? If the former, it would appear to be a clever reference to recent events by (I'm assuming) Marc Laidlaw--the experiments alluded to took place the year HL2 was released. If the latter, well, it would be a pretty striking coincidence, wouldn't it?

 

[Darkside55]

Gordon's visiting fellow status at Innsbruck was established in the first game. In the instruction manual, there's a letter of employment from an "L.M." welcoming Gordon to the Black Mesa facility. It's addressed to Innsbruck and makes some mention of his stay there. It was dated 199x, so it was kind of a premonition.

Great link by the way. I knew they were doing quantum entanglement experiments at Innsbruck, funny enough they were doing experiments that coincide with Gordon Freeman's doctorate thesis at MIT, but I didn't know about the teleportation of ions. It was all just entangled photons when I last read up on it.

 

[nokori3byo]

Thanks for the clarification.

Interesting. I guess Laidlaw must have been aware of research activites in Experimental Physics at U of I. Not a coincidence exactly, but still pretty cool.

 

[soulslicer]

wow, thats an interesting thing there. Never heard of it till now

 

[Polaris]

Of course, very interesting.
There is also Gordon's thesis "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", it sounds like technobabble nonsense? Not really.

 

[leib10]

In Episode One, they have a song called "The Innsbruck Experiment". Coincidence?

 

[nokori3byo]

The question is: which "Innsbruck experiment?" The one witnessed by Gordon or the real-life 2004 exepriment? Not that it matters, really.

 

[Rapstah]

The 2004 one could very well have been the one seen by Gordon.

 

[Advisor]

In Episode One, they have a song called "The Innsbruck Experiment". Coincidence?

Of course not. In fact, many HL2 songs have names that hint at quantum theory and/or string theory, some even have a double meaning.

 

[ríomhaire]

Must make a slight correction Darkside. It's actually dated 200-.

 

[Planetary]

It's from Half-life 2, not Episode One (the bit where you first get the SMG), in the canals.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Gordon's visiting fellow status at Innsbruck was established in the first game. In the instruction manual, there's a letter of employment from an "L.M." welcoming Gordon to the Black Mesa facility. It's addressed to Innsbruck and makes some mention of his stay there. It was dated 199x, so it was kind of a premonition.
.

It was dated 200x, but close

 

[Darkside55]

It was dated 200x, but close

Must make a slight correction Darkside. It's actually dated 200-.

I've really just gotta keep that manual next to me at all times. That's right, it'd have to be 200x because Gordon Freeman graduated Innsbruck in 1999 (I think...now where the heck did I leave that Prima guide?). So that'd be impossible without a time paradox. Jeez, me and dates from that manual, right Riom? Same with the May 15th discussion a long time ago.

There is also Gordon's thesis "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", it sounds like technobabble nonsense? Not really.

I tried to memorize his thesis once. Then I realized there was absolutely no reason to and just gave up.

Also, why'd I never see that post of yours? I could've just read that instead of going off and learning about parametric down-conversion myself, save myself the trouble.

 

[nokori3byo]

Here's the letter, for anyone who's interested:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/68/FreemanJobLetter.jpg

 

[gusIII]

Oh God. Innsbruck is in Europe, Austria! Mayby we are going to visit it in the future! (But it's probarly dust by now)

 

[nokori3byo]

Coinicdentally, Innsbruck is the sister city of Omachi, the town in which I live and work here in Japan.

 

[Barnz]

Here is a theory of mine on date (off-topic):

1. According to the manual of Half-Life, game was set in year May, 200*.

*/04/0*

2. It has been stated in the expansion packs that experiment was on May 16 (see Calhoun's memorandum or Hazard Course training schedule). Expansion packs were done by Gearbox Software, with the help from Valve Software.

16/04/0*

3. In one of the Half-Life (for the Sony PlayStation 2 Port) trailers, the announcer says "monday morning is still monday morning". Trailer was probably done by publisher Sierra or Vivendi.

4. May 16 is Tuesday in 2000-2006, Wednesday in 2001-2007, Thursday in 2002, Friday in 2003-2008 and Monday in 2005.

Saturday and Sunday days are holiday for the federal facilities.

16/04/05 (Monday)

5. On the Raising The Bar book, there is a side-note shows that experiment was in 31/03/03 (Monday) at 04.33 PM. Except the day, month and time, we have year 2003 information.

16/05/03 (Friday)

6. According to the Episode One official site, there is almost two decades between the first game and sequel.

 

[Darkside55]

The experiment wasn't on May 16. Experiment might have been in December. May 16 was just Gordon's training in the use of the HEV suit.

I made the same mistake in thinking that it was May 16. Thought it was like that for years. Turns out it isn't. Please see this thread. The date's December, if anything.

Aside from that, I need just two pieces of information and I can tell you the exact year the BMRF incident took place. What I need is:

1. The number of years it took Gordon Freeman to receive his doctorate.
2. The amount of time spent at Innsbruck.

Gordon Freeman was 27 years old when the incident occurred. He graduated MIT in 1999. Assuming he went to college directly at the age of 18, he spends one year at MIT undeclared (MIT policy, you pick your major the second year), then majors in physics. Getting a degree in physics could be anywhere from 4-7 years.

After that, he spent some time as a visiting fellow at Innsbruck. His stay was likely short, because "tenure was a long way off," as written in the Prima strategy guide; tenure is usually six or seven years. It was also long enough for him to do some research and complete some experiments, but that doesn't say much either. Neither of those things give us a hard date.

So, get the dates on those, and you can pinpoint the "x" in 200x.