Similarities between HL series and Timeline

[nipples]

For my research paper I had to read the book Timeline by Michael Crichton and I noticed a few similarities.

1. It deals with teleport machines.
2. The secret facility which is in New Mexico is named Black Rock.
3. At the facility a few characters take note of the mesas around them.
4. There is a genetically mutated and vicious cat that was messed up by using the teleporter too much.
5. A guy that works at the facility is named Gordon...

 

[Cpt Tenacious]

I guess the guys at Valve are big on reading.

 

[Cheomesh]

Yep yep.

 

[Que-Ever]

You forgot about all the castles in Half-Life.

 

[Narvi]

I would think the cat is based on the Fly, myself.

 

[pistolero!]

If people don't steal ideas from eachother, where they're gonna come from?

 

[Polaris]

For my research paper I had to read the book Timeline by Michael Crichton and I noticed a few similarities.

1. It deals with teleport machines.
2. The secret facility which is in New Mexico is named Black Rock.
3. At the facility a few characters take note of the mesas around them.
4. There is a genetically mutated and vicious cat that was messed up by using the teleporter too much.
5. A guy that works at the facility is named Gordon...

1. Time machine is not teleporter.
2. Original name for Black Mesa was Mesa Diablo or Black Butte Missile Base, Montana.
3. Yes, it's New Mexico.
4. I think it was based on The Fly or the Schr?dinger's cat experiment.
5. Very minor character, right?

 

[Berkman]

I noticed this things to, I havn't finished the book yet so no spoilers please

 

[nipples]

1. Time machine is not teleporter.

Not so much a time machine but a teleporter between parallel universes.

 

[Cheomesh]

I noticed this things to, I havn't finished the book yet so no spoilers please

Your next book is Solaris kthanxbai

 

[Polaris]

Not so much a time machine but a teleporter between parallel universes.

Still it's very different from Half-Life teleports based on EPR paradox.

 

[Berkman]

Your next book is Solaris kthanxbai

Why is that my next book?

 

[Cheomesh]

Eh, because I mentioned it in another thread.

 

[Berkman]

Tell me about the book "Solaris kthanxbai" or are you just joking?

 

[Cheomesh]

It's an interesting Sci Fi book.

If you've ever seen any sci fi movie, or read any sci fi book that really talks about a non-human race, it takes about 30 seconds (if that) to see that these aliens are in fact: human.

Does not matter how they look, or what language they speak, they are 99.9% of the time, human.

Authors create the idea of them being alien normally just by drawing their culture (sometimes an obvious parallel) to an extreme. Feringi, for instance, are absolutely human: They're just extreme capitalists.

Solaris was written in the 40's I think (can't recall, being tired right now); it puts out the idea of a non-hominid alien life form (in this case, a sentient ocean, or the whole world could be one sentient being, we never really find out if it's one, the other, or both) and humans communicate, but because the two minds are so alien to each other, no possible form of communication could possibly ever work. There is no magic "Rosetta Stone" for us to think or talk like them, there is no "cross culture"; neither party will ever comprehend the other, because they are from two totally different planets.

It's like shoving an Ethernet cable into an electrical socket. It just will not happen.

Of the few sci-fi books I've read, it is one of TWO I can actually enjoy. The other one is Starship Troopers.

 

[Polaris]

We really need that book section...