It's not time travel

[smokes27]

I've heard alot of people speak about time travel when it comes to the week that Gordon and Alyx were in the teleporter. But is obvious it's not. The teleporter malfuctioned, and it kept Gordon and Alyx in limbo for a week. Think what happened to Scotty in that star trek episode where he locks himself in a transporter beam and they revived him years later.

 

[Captain M4d]

Of course it is time travel. It may not be considered it as the people experiencing it, but to everyone on the outside, it is most certainly time travel. Haven't you beaten the game yet?

 

[TyrantII]

i'd have to agree. it is time travel, but as you said most likely in only one direction


but then again in HL1 there was that portal near the end of the game that brought you back to the resonance cascade...

so technically portals can cause time travel, or even wierded, possibly bring you to similar universes, that are offset by time.

head spinning yet? i know mine is with this damn HL2 plot

 

[Asknoone]

Its not time travel, simple as that. There is no time travel involved, half life is more about science than anything else and about the universe etc.

 

[Kristafon]

I think it has something to do with anouther phenomenen, valve suddenly realising that a city cant turn into a massive war zone in five minutes flat and quikly inserting a poor excuse.

 

[we11er]

It is time travel. The G-man clearly alters time in the final sequence, and constantly mentions time. Hence I believe Gordon and Alyx were instantly teleported forward in time, as oposed to being kept in limbo in some strange place - where exactly???

 

[HEaP]

I've heard alot of people speak about time travel when it comes to the week that Gordon and Alyx were in the teleporter. But is obvious it's not. The teleporter malfuctioned, and it kept Gordon and Alyx in limbo for a week. Think what happened to Scotty in that star trek episode where he locks himself in a transporter beam and they revived him years later.

And? Scotty got paused in time in star trek! WTF? Who cares? The Half life universe is its own! It dose not have to obey rules set in other peoples universes! Just because something happened in star trek, it means nothing, NOTHING in half-life!

Its not time travel, simple as that. There is no time travel involved, half life is more about science than anything else and about the universe etc.

erm, more to do with science FICTION me thinks and time travel is a common favourite with this genre.

i personally, maybe wrong, (only a certain group of people can tell me im Truly wrong, and they are the people who created, and continue to create the half-life universe) is that time travel will play a part in half life, remember when Dr. klinner finds gordon and Alyx in the portal room??? finds out they jump a week into the future? he says something about opening new lines of research! research about wot??? the possibility of time travel! or something related to it. who knows?

 

[SonicTitan]

Hmm...Gordon and Alyx make, to them, what seems like an instantaneous teleport. However they apear in Dr Kleiner's lab a week later. How can you possibly deny that they have traveled in time.

At the start of the game, I would say, gman makes it pretty clear that he knows what is in store for Gordon. I think the whole time travel phenomena will be much more important in HL3. It would certainly make for a pretty cool game, if at points you could travel back in time and change things so you could get past obstacles in the present. Day of the tentacle style.

 

[Is This Tea]

but then again in HL1 there was that portal near the end of the game that brought you back to the resonance cascade...

I'm still waiting for someone to substantiate this claim... did this happen to anybody else? If so, what map can I load to experience that again? I got to see it for myself.

 

[we11er]

err, there was no teleporter that took you back to the resonance cascade!

 

[AJ Rimmer]

By all definition that matters, it is time travel. They disappear from tima and space, and then re-appears in the future. So in every way imaginable, it IS time travel. Unintentional time travel, but still time travel.

 

[Maxi]

They got stuck in the transporter thingy for a week, hard to figure out?

 

[Is This Tea]

We’re just arguing semantics here… Call it what you want the facts remain. G-Man Can Pause time. Teleporters can be used to go slowly forward in time… Backwards in time… Nothing says that’s possible yet. So call it Time Travel if you want or don’t if your not comfortable with that. Just semantics. Maybe we can come up with a term everybody is happy with.

 

[f|uke]

They were not stuck in the teleporter. It was instantanious for Alyx & Gordon, but days for everyone else.

This means they teleported forward in time. Dr Kliener even says something to this effect.

They did not go backward, and there is no evidence that this is possible in the HL2 world. Dont jump to conclusions there.

Time can, however, clearly be sped up very fast by the teleporters, or "stopped" by Gman.

 

[smokes27]

They were not stuck in the teleporter. It was instantanious for Alyx & Gordon, but days for everyone else.

This means they teleported forward in time. Dr Kliener even says something to this effect.

They did not go backward, and there is no evidence that this is possible in the HL2 world. Dont jump to conclusions there.

Time can, however, clearly be sped up very fast by the teleporters, or "stopped" by Gman.

It wasnt time travel because they didn't leave one time period and travel into another. G-Man can stop time, well, because he's the G-Man. Gordon and Alyx didn't travel forward in time, they simply were caught in the malfunctioning transporter until they were spat out, a week later.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

It wasnt time travel because they didn't leave one time period and travel into another. G-Man can stop time, well, because he's the G-Man. Gordon and Alyx didn't travel forward in time, they simply were caught in the malfunctioning transporter until they were spat out, a week later.

What is the PRACTICAL difference?

 

[[Dragoon]]

It's time travel in the same way that taking a nap and waking up 3 hours later is time travel.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

It's time travel in the same way that taking a nap and waking up 3 hours later is time travel.

No it's actually not, because had that been the case they would have felt there bodies being away for a week, now as it were, they were literally removed from time and brought to the future=time travel.
The practical difference between what they went through and time travel is non-existent.

 

[Eejit]

I'm still waiting for someone to substantiate this claim... did this happen to anybody else? If so, what map can I load to experience that again? I got to see it for myself.

It's the last teleporter before you get to the Nihilanth's chamber. You can hear the lines the scientists said as they were starting the experiment at the start of the game.
Whether this is meant to show that you traveled back in time is debateable.

 

[we11er]

Thing is, the atoms have to stay somewhere if they were in a sort of stasis. I think their atoms were immediately sent to Kleiner's lab, one week in the future.

 

[CriYam]

They were teleported slowly, which you are told immediately after teleporting.

 

[Sequence]

I must have missed the bit where the G-Man stopped time. I assumed it was because Gorden blew up the teleporter and was caught in the blast, just like when the teleporter exploded before and they were teleported into the future.

 

[Mr.Wotsit]

To say that it's time travel when they teleport a week into the future is like saying that it's time travel when you go to bed and wake up in the morning.

It was just the machine screwing them around so the plot works better.

 

[Fighter]

I certainly hope there is no cheesy time travel ala "Back to the future" style. The teleporter holding them for a week and them not realising sounds good. While in another diamention they might just not be at all concious. This might be the same technology G-man uses to keep control of Gordon and also thats why Gordon does not age. It is time travel in a way, but not cheesy.

What if G-man does not actually stop time? What if he just teleports you back to that dark "linbo" and what you see is just the last image in your memory. Him touching Alyx might just be him playing with the last picture in your mind.

I hope they dont bring in time travel too much. Even though the hints are very strong.

 

[McFace]

They were teleported slowly, which you are told immediately after teleporting.

Exactly, it was a slow teleport, to them it felt like nothing it all but to the outside world it was a week later. This is the same technology (or technique) that the gman uses to keep you in stasis (your not sleeping or anything, your quite awake but time for you moves very slowly).

 

[Whitter]

It's the last teleporter before you get to the Nihilanth's chamber. You can hear the lines the scientists said as they were starting the experiment at the start of the game.
Whether this is meant to show that you traveled back in time is debateable.

The number of times I've played through this game and I never noticed that. You cannot clearly here them though but you can pick up lines.

"Thank god your here"
"Big day today"
"warn them"

 

[big_king_frosty]

The g-man seems to be of a higher power to that of dr. breen and the combines? who does he work for and why does he think that he owns you? he talks about other people wanting gordon? he must be of a higher position of the combines and so the combines couldnt take over the world?

anyways it wasnt time travel.....it just ruins the idea of the game!!!

 

[Kangy]

My theory is that instead of being "catapulted" by Xen at a fast, normal speed, Alyx and Gordon were thrown really slowly.

 

[Asknoone]

My theory is that instead of being "catapulted" by Xen at a fast, normal speed, Alyx and Gordon were thrown really slowly.

Finally, a smart person...dr kliener pratically tells you this

Well done Kangy

 

[oogly]

The problem is that too mabny of you fail to understand the principle of time travel or how time works. Time travel in our own universe is simply moving at the speed of light. When you move at the speed of light the universe will proceed through time without you... If two twins each got into a self-sustaining rocket ship and one of them did not launch while the other moved at the speed of light then at the conclusion of the experiment one of the twins would be significantly older than the other (depending upon how long the one flew around relative to the universe). Both of the twins would experience time passing within their ship but one would have eaten thousands of meals while the other didn't even have time to bite a cracker.

Experiments have been done using atomic clocks... a ship goes and flies around the earth really really fast in orbit and when it lands its atomic clock is behind the atomic clock on earth that it was synchronized with. Its a minor difference but the speed is minor in comparison to the speed of light.

When you say that Alex and Gordon were "held inside the portal" it is misleading. They were essentially moving around at the speed of light for a week until they arrived at their final destination. There was no passing of one week in their existence. It really was only a split second for them.

Time travel is the instantaneous movement from one time period to another (only forward seems likely). When you go to sleep and so forth your body still experiences the passage of time its just that your conscious doesn't perceive it because of the state of your brain. Again, for alex and gordon that one week that the rest of the world experienced only took a split second. Just like the 10 years that everyone else experienced only took Gordon a split second. He looked just like everyone remembered him being like back then because he is really only a couple hours older than when HL1 took place. Remember, time is relative.

 

[Eejit]

Official word on messing with time!

Originally Posted by Marc Laidlaw
Hi, Solver, I'm assuming whatever I tell you is going to get posted somewhere, so I'll be very careful in answering.

I will not talk about the meaning of the game or clear up stuff that has yet to be clarified or revealed; it only makes sense to do this in the context of the games themselves. Stuff that hasn't been revealed is that way because we're not ready to reveal it. Everything that's there is there for a reason; ditto for everything that isn't there. I can only say, "Stay tuned."

Race-X was Gearbox's creation, and likely would only be continued if Gearbox were to do more episodes in the HL universe. There were gameplay modes they wanted to explore, and their designers wanted to make some new monsters; Race-X was a great way for them to do this. The universe is expansive enough to allow this without conflicting with the core story. Remember, these are games first and foremost, and the story really is there to open up and extend (rather than shut down) possibilities for fun gameplay. We did coordinate overarching story elements with Gearbox, but left a lot of the details for them to explore and invent according to what worked for their design process. As for whether Shepherd was put on ice before or after the Nihilanth's demise, it's really hard to say, since Gordon's time in Xen and in the Nihilanth's chamber may not be mapped directly against the timeline of events at Black Mesa.

The gman mumbles sound fairly close to what I remember him saying...strangely enough, I can't find the script for that exchange.

Thanks for taking such an interest in the story. Before HL1 came out, it was tough to convince outsiders that FPS players would care at all about having any kind of story in their game. Obviously, given the wide range of reactions, they care quite a bit. The debate over HL2's content is much more varied.

Yours,
Marc Laidlaw

 

[Mitch]

that's an interesting post from marc there, gj

I think G-Man only has the ability to slow time down in specific locales. For example. At the end of HL², you appear to be frozen, but actually you can move about very slowly. The slow teleport is another example of this: mid-teleport, G-Man slows down the time around Gordon almost to a stop, so he doesn't arrive at his destination (the train at the start of HL² & Kleiner's lab) until G-Man wants him to.

Also, given my limited understanding of the special theory of relativity, and Valve/Marc Laidlaw's anal attention to detail, it would only be possible to travel forward through time.

Perhaps what Marc means in the above email when he says "may not be mapped directly against the timeline of events at Black Mesa" is that he did not go backwards, but either forwards part way towards the start of HL², or that the timescale is very different compared with earth, since the 2 planets are in different parts of the universe (if not different dimensions), then there will be the potential for huge time dilation given the distances travelled.

Read more about time-dilation here: http://members.tripod.com/wmhxbigguy/Theory/time.html
(there's probably better explanations, but this was the 1st simple 1 I found)

 

[pharamir]

I've heard alot of people speak about time travel when it comes to the week that Gordon and Alyx were in the teleporter. But is obvious it's not. The teleporter malfuctioned, and it kept Gordon and Alyx in limbo for a week. Think what happened to Scotty in that star trek episode where he locks himself in a transporter beam and they revived him years later.

NERDO!

 

[Is This Tea]

NERDO!

I don’t like star trek either… but dude… give him a break. He is just bringing up a point that has to do with teleportation and time travel from another science fiction story. His post was quite relevant.

 

[smokeyassassin]

When you say that Alex and Gordon were "held inside the portal" it is misleading. They were essentially moving around at the speed of light for a week until they arrived at their final destination. There was no passing of one week in their existence. It really was only a split second for them.
.

surly thats wrong, if alyx and gordon were traveling at the speed of light surly they would have experienced a week, but to kliner it would have been a second.

is it not how kliner explaind a slow teleport, there atoms took a week to get from one place to another because there were not traveling at the speed of light, just the speed of the postman.

 

[Obakemono]

surly thats wrong, if alyx and gordon were traveling at the speed of light surly they would have experienced a week, but to kliner it would have been a second.

is it not how kliner explaind a slow teleport, there atoms took a week to get from one place to another because there were not traveling at the speed of light, just the speed of the postman.

No, you have it backwards. Traveling at the speed of light makes your "clock" essentially stand still to the rest of the universe. If you want to be your current age in the year 2030 then you need to move at the speed of light. Time outside of your realm will pass at an excelerated rate while you are "in transit".

The idea of the atoms taking a week to get from on place to another because they were moving slow just does not fit with accepted physics. The faster you go the slower time passes for you (relative to the rest of the world). This can be seen with the tau particle. It moves at very near the speed of light and has a set rate of decay (or half-life ). We then should be able to calculate how far the particle travels before decaying. When the experiment is performed the particle travels farther then it mathematically should and this is because its "clock" moves slower relative to us because of its high rate of speed (its half-life is slowed).

Rather than moving slowly, odds are they are moving at the speed of light but jumping into a different dimension and then being pulled back into ours when arriving... this would probably be how G-Man holds Gordon at a constant age while 10 years passes by.

 

[pickers]

It wasnt time travel because they didn't leave one time period and travel into another. G-Man can stop time, well, because he's the G-Man. Gordon and Alyx didn't travel forward in time, they simply were caught in the malfunctioning transporter until they were spat out, a week later.

What is time travel to you? "stepping into a machine and stepping out at a different time" thats what happened!
and by the way ppl, time travel IS possible to a very rudementry effect. Re: general relativity. If a rocket shoots off from earth and accelerates (for simplicity sake, at close to the speed of light) for 4 of his years, turns around and comes back, a round trip of 8 years, ppl on earth will have experienced a time preiod of greater than 8 years. However, travelling BACK in time cannot be achieved by this method.
perhaps, as mentioned before, the slingshot around xen went wrong and sent gordon and alyx into a highly elliptic orbital path, lasting one week as seen on earth. As they are traving at light speed - its instantaneous for them. Time travel.
I really cant see how your definition of time travel differs?!

 

[Mechagodzilla]

Whether suspended animation counts as time travel to the future is up to individual interpretation.

Personally, I think it is basically the same, but the term "time travel" sounds hokey.

 

[frusion]

if it was time travel and they came back days or years later then city 17 (or the world?) would have been destroyed right?