Inventing Iron Man (2 page)

At this juncture, Tony Stark moves away from being the capitalist solely concerned with profit from making munitions to becoming the iron-garbed superhero and founding member of the Avengers—Iron Man. A key implication from this origin tale is that Tony Stark must always wear the chest plate to keep the shrapnel from moving into his heart and killing him. This was shown in a panel in Tales of Suspense #40 from 1963 in a story entitled “Iron Man vs. Gargantus.” Tony is mulling over how sad he feels that he couldn't go swimming
with a girlfriend (Jeanne), “She probably thought I was trying to avoid her, but I couldn't go swimming! I can never appear anywhere bare-chested because I constantly wear this iron chest plate. Just as other men plug in their electric shavers for their morning or evening shave, I must constantly charge up this plate which gives continued life to my heart!” When he finally plugs his chest plate into the outlet meant for the shaving razor, he exclaims “Ah! Electrical energy is pouring back! Now I can continue living … to help humanity as Iron Man!”

I am going to admit right up front that Iron Man plays a bit fast and loose with valid concepts of physics and energetics. All right, all right, those of you “in the know” realize that is really an understatement. I spoke to my colleague Jim Kakalios, the friendly neighborhood physics professor and author of
The Physics of Superheroes
(you should read this book—it is great) about this very issue. He pointed out that “energy storage in batteries has dramatically lagged behind information storage. If batteries had followed the Moore's Law that describes the increase in density of transistors on integrated circuits, with a doubling in capacity every two years, then a battery that would discharge in one hour in 1970 would last for over a century today. Ultimately, if we don't want to wear licensed nuclear power packs on our backs, we are limited to chemical processes to run our suit of high-tech armor, and in that case we must either sacrifice weight or lifetime.” And on this point I concur with him completely. The energetic needs of Iron Man outstrip what we can provide currently. We cannot really power up to use repulsor rays and so on. However, what we are going to explore is just how much of the Iron Man character is based on a realistic extension of concepts in neuroscience, robotics, biomedical engineering, and kinesiology that we have today.

But, while it might seem perfectly realistic to you that suits of armor could be powered and worn rather like clothes, you likely haven't thought much about the real science behind creating ways for biological creatures like human beings to connect with artificial creations like bionic limbs. In the comic books, imagining this very thing was how Stan Lee and others created a superhero, albeit one quite different from the granddaddy of superheroes, Superman. Iron Man is a mere human being. As highlighted by Andy Mangels in his book
Iron Man: Beneath the Armor
, famous Iron Man writer David Michelinie has said that Iron Man is “a super hero with no superpowers. Any abilities he has are abilities that he makes, that he imagines
and then invents. Prime among those, of course is his amazing suit of electronic armor. Without the armor, he's just a man. A man with a huge brain and a few billion dollars, but still just a human being … That makes him a lot more interesting than many heroes, as well as making him easier for the average reader to identify with. He could be you or me, if we had the money and inventiveness. And the courage. And the willpower.”

Inventing Iron Man
is divided into three parts related to different aspects of how humans can interface with technology. In Part I we start “skin deep” and then explore areas under the skin such as muscles and nerves. We also look at what might go on top of the skin in examining the concept of controllable suits of supporting armor by using Iron Man as a primary example and other attempts at creating prosthetic extensions of the human body as secondary examples. This exploration also includes discussing the way in which the body works normally so we can better appreciate the effect of layering technology over top of our biological machines. We also consider this from the perspective of something that you wear (or drive!) to survey the reality about what is needed to make connections between biological beings and machines. It really is largely all in our heads—which is to say our brains. We will talk about the possibility of controlling things like a computer or a robotic arm by measuring electrical activity in the brain and spinal cord. This is the area of neuroscience known as “brain-computer interface”—the literal connection between activity in the nervous system and actual machines.

Part II describes the long-term effects of interfacing with the kind of technology in the Iron Man suit. Our bodies adapt to the stresses that they experience, and interfacing with technology is a biological problem of stress adaptation. This kind of interface removes some stresses that are normally present in the body but also adds a few new ones. What are the limits within which our bodies can borrow, blend, and become one with artificial technology and, perhaps more importantly, how does this alter the body itself?

Part III looks at the good and the bad about Tony Stark the man and what he brings to the suit. Tony wrestles with demons—in a bottle and otherwise. But his drive and creativity allow him to constantly reinvent himself and his suit to changing circumstances. In this way, he has a kinship to creative geniuses the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and modern-day inventors such as Yoshiyuki Sankai and
Yves Rossy. If you don't know who these men are, you will by the time you have finished the book! The chapter also tackles the issue of what kinds of problems you might experience as an iron-suited superhero. What are some of the practical aspects of being Iron Man?

Inventing Iron Man
explains the science behind and limitations of the extent to which human beings can control and interface with computers, machines, and robots. Because Iron Man is a normal human being inside a high-tech suit of armor, it is always assumed that anybody, well practically anybody, could just slap on the gear and be ready to go. This is not so, as you will read in this book. A lot of specialized learning and adaptations in the body of the Iron Man armor “user” would be needed. Just exactly what those adaptations are (and they aren't all good) you will find out later. For those of you who aren't that familiar with Iron Man, you will learn here a bit about a Marvel Comics icon and the science behind linking humans to machines. For those readers very familiar with Tony Stark and Iron Man, well, I have a few surprises ahead for you. To find out exactly what I mean, please keep on turning the pages and read along as together we probe the possibility of inventing Iron Man—the possibility of a human machine.

I remain inspired by my two main scientific mentors, Digby Sale at McMaster University and Richard Stein at the University of Alberta. They both kindled my interest in neuroscience, and I thank them for lighting and fanning that spark into a flame. I must also point out the accidental inspiration provided by Dan Ferris of the University of Michigan who, I think, planted a seed by showing Iron Man images in a conference talk on robotic exoskeletons given at Key Biscayne, Florida some years ago.

I conducted many interviews during the writing of this book, and I am indebted to those who agreed to speak and correspond with me. Yves (the “Jet Man”) Rossy, Yoshiyuki Sankai and Fumi Takeuchi of Cyberdyne Inc., Phil Nuytten of Nuytco, Jon Wolpaw at Wadsworth Center, Doug Weber at the University of Pittsburgh, Max Donelan at Simon Fraser University, David Williams (formerly of the Canadian Space Agency, now of McMaster University), and David Wolf and Robert Frost of the National Aeronautics and Space Agency all corresponded with me at various times. I thank them very much for their time.

I remain impressed by the level of professionalism and competence at the Johns Hopkins University Press. I thank Vince Burke for his help throughout the entire process of proposal to publication, Michele T. Callaghan for her truly outstanding skills as copy editor, and Kathy Alexander for her tireless and effective work as publicist.

I also thank all the readers of my first book,
Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero
, who have so kindly provided feedback on how they enjoyed it. You helped sustain me in writing this book.

Last, thank you to Jordan, Andi, and Lori for helping to keep me grounded.

                 
Tony learns to live inside a suit of iron

BIONICS, ROBOTIC ARMOR, AND ANTHROPOMORPHIC SUITS

I thought, well, if a guy had a suit of armor, but it was a modern suit of armor—not like years ago in the days of King Arthur—and what if that suit of armor made him as strong as any Super Hero? I wasn't thinking robot at all: I was thinking of armor, a man wearing twentieth-century armor that would give him great power.

—Comic book icon Stan Lee on his inspiration for creating Iron Man, in
Iron Man: Beneath the Armor
by Andy Mangels

Iron Man is one of those comics where you have very few purists who have attached themselves to particular story lines. In the case of Iron Man it's the myth of Iron Man … it's the suit … it's what the suit could do.

—Jon Favreau, director of the 2008 movie
Iron Man

The prototypical British heavy metal band Black Sabbath rang in 1970 with Tony Iommi's immortal guitar riff (heavily distorted courtesy of Laney amps) and words (heavily distorted courtesy of Ozzy Osbourne's vocal cords and, um, distinct manner of speech),
forever giving us the phrase “I … am … Iron Man.” That musical Iron Man was cast as a villain who has a vision of a future apocalypse. But who is Iron Man the comic book icon? Let's be honest: first impressions are often mostly visual. And at first glance, the defining visual characteristic of Iron Man is his iron armor. The main attraction and defining characteristic for Iron Man really is skin deep. The Marvel Comics character Iron Man certainly represents the most well-known comic character to wear a suit of armor like it is his own skin. Colossus from the Uncanny X-Men also has an iron skin, except in his case it is literal in that his skin actually changes into iron! John Henry Irons from DC Comics also has an iron body, with capabilities that rival Superman. And even Batman once used an oversized exoskeleton to help defeat Superman in Frank Miller's
The Dark Knight Returns
. Yet none of these well-known and lesser known heroes is the combination pilot, soldier, police officer, deep-sea diver, and flying human that Tony Stark is.

Many buzzwords could be used to describe the themes we are going to explore in this book, including “bionics” and “cybernetics.” But these themes center on two main concepts: what type of person it would take to be an inventor and what kind of inventions would be needed to make a sustainable Iron Man. To look at these topics, we will explore the one great evolutionary “invention” we all possess: the human body, especially its muscles and its nervous system including the brain. We will also consider other more tangible inventions—past, present, and future—in our quest to understand whether Iron Man could really have been invented and, if so, what that invention would do to the human inside.

The merger of biology, modern technology, and concepts of engineering is captured by the term “bionics.” (The term also captures fond memories of a childhood spent watching Lee Majors as Steve Austin in
The Six Million Dollar Man
. I never understood why the weight of a motor as it was lifted didn't rip his bionic arm right off that human body. I still don't. But it's cool nonetheless.) The term “cybernetics” has also been used related to this kind of research, suggesting the control systems involved in combining artificial intelligence and machine-biological interfaces. The concept of “cyborg” is also relevant here. Cyborgs show up in all kinds of pop-culture references from the Terminator of the Govinator to the Cybermen of Dr. Who. The Terminator had a metal skeleton covered with imitation human flesh. The Cybermen go to real extremes of biological and
machine connection and a little human biology—including an artificial nervous system—within a robotic shell of iron. Unlike our hero, the Cybermen emerged from a humanoid species on a twin planet to Earth. Those humanoids began implanting technology and artificial parts into themselves until they became full-on cyborgs and almost robots. We won't take it that far, with Iron Man, but we will take some tentative steps in that direction!

The first of many inventors we look at in this book is the man who came up with the concept of man-machine combination in the form of a cyborg. Jean de la Hire (1878–1956), an early twentieth-century French novelist, wrote a series of adventures involving a hero named Léo Saint-Clair. Léo is a man-machine hybrid whose cyborg name is Nyctalope. He possesses some artificial organs and supernatural mental powers. Nyctalope represents the first superhero written about in popular culture, preceding the great-grandfathers of comic book superheroes, such as Superman (1938), Batman (1939), and Captain America (1941). His first adventure was published in 1911 and his origin story was described in “L'Assassinat du Nyctalope”—“The Assassination of the Nyctalope”—published in 1933 and recently translated by Brian Stableford and reissued. (In true comic book style, though, Saint-Clair wasn't actually assassinated and did survive.)

Like Tony Stark, Nyctalope had an artificial heart. Or at least a heart with artificial support. But he didn't come close to Tony Stark in the complexity of his cyborg machinery. For much of this book, we will explore that machinery—the ever-changing types of armor and the men (and women) who wore them. Before we look at some representations of that armor, let's examine what major functions it performs. Iron Man's famous costume is an amalgam of an assistive device and protective armor. When we think about the kinesiology and neuroscience behind what is realistic about Iron Man, we need to be aware of both facets of the metal suit. The assistive device part is, just as it sounds, technology that assists a person in performing basic functions such as moving, lifting things, or, for the most part still fancifully, flying around. The protective function of this type of armor is much more obvious: it shields Tony Stark—and in later comics his friends and enemies—from weapons and other dangers.