|
 Gordon Freeman |
In Half-Life, you play Gordon Freeman. A native of Seattle, Washington,
Gordon Freeman showed high interest and aptitude in the areas of quantum
physics and relativity at an extremely young age. His earliest heroes were
Einstein, Hawking and Feynman.
While a visiting student at the University of Innsbruck in the late
1990's, Gordon Freeman observed a series of seminal teleportation experiments
conducted by the Institute for Experimental Physics (see Bowemeester, Pan,
Mattle, Eibl, Weinfurter, Zeilinger, "Experimental Quantum Teleportation,"
Nature, 11 December 1997) (see also http://www.sciam.com/explorations/122297teleport).
Practical applications for teleportation became his obsession. In 1999,
Freeman received his doctorate from M.I.T. with a thesis paper entitled:
"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."
Disappointed with the slow pace and poor funding of academic research,
and with tenure a distant dream, Gordon cast about for a job in private
industry. As fortune would have it, his mentor at M.I.T., Professor Alex
Kleiner, had taken charge of a research project being conducted at a decommissioned
missile base in Black Mesa, New Mexico. Kleiner was looking for a few bright
associates, and Gordon was his first choice. Considering the source and
amount of funds available to the Black Mesa Labs, Gordon suspected that
he would be involved in some sort of weapons research; but in the hopes
that practical civilian applications would arise (in areas of quantum computing
and astrophysics), he accepted Kleiner's offer. Apart from a butane-powered
tennis ball cannon he constructed at age 6, Gordon had never handled a
weapon of any sort-or needed to... until now. |
|
