Published by Marvel Comics in The Iron Manual, 1993
Tony Stark has proven to be the quintessential capitalist. Capitalism as a philosophy, has collided with the world and its peoples and has come away changed. So has Tony.
The humanistic forces that are altering our perceptions of technology, the by biosphere, and the relationship of industrial might in a society of people are compelling us to apply the concept of ’limits to growth’ to capitalism and are as endlessly evolving. The chronicles of Tony Stark’s life, Iron Man, enters its forth decade; and parallels some of these ideas and developments. The scientific revolution continues in Iron Man, in microcosm. Another concept is that all the money and technology in the world cannot eliminate the person.
But the individual mind is the last, most complex thing that Mankind can study and hope to understand. As we all know, as people we are beset by numerous forces and conflicts within ourselves that will always underlie our dealings with the forces and conflicts of the external world. Tony Stark, Iron Man, will never let us forget that a balance can, indeed must be struck between technology and humanity. For a suit of armor, standing alone without person inside, as formidable and beautiful as it may be, is a hollow empty shell. So, too technology without the presence of humanity.
The science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, has written that a sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic. As we hurtle into the next millennia, many young people who are reading this now will be future ’magicians.’ Who knows? In the distant future we may all have suits of armor that will do many things for us that not even Tony Stark could imagine.
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