Technology Changes the Future

Stark Industries Tower was a magnificent building with an artistic style, its overall tone blending technology and fashion. Standing 190 meters tall with sixty-two floors, it could easily accommodate over a thousand workers and was one of New York’s landmark buildings.

In Howard’s words: "It’s nothing special, far inferior to the Empire State Building. Mainly because we didn’t have enough funding back then, so we could only barely build a headquarters this large. Besides this office building, Stark Industries also has a Future Technology Plaza for launching new products, as well as three large manufacturing plants in the outskirts of New York."

At this moment, they were on the sixty-second floor, the top floor where the chairman’s office was located in Stark Industries Tower.

Logan stood guard outside the office. Kyle and Howard each held a stemmed glass of sweet red wine as they stood beside the floor-to-ceiling windows that replaced the outer walls, looking down at the night view of most of New York.

Howard smiled and said, "When it comes to fine wine, no bar can compare with the collection in my office. And as a major shareholder, you’ve never personally visited Stark Industries’ office building, so I brought you here directly."

"It’s indeed much better than I expected," Kyle nodded in appraisal. Back when he had invested in the company’s shares, he had claimed publicly that he was investing in Stark Industries, but in truth, he had been investing in Howard himself.

"It won’t be long before Stark Industries proves to the entire world that technology can change the future." Howard smiled and raised his wineglass toward Kyle.

Their glasses clinked crisply, and they each drained the red wine in one gulp.

After a few drinks, Howard’s occupational habit seemed to act up, and he eagerly led Kyle around to inspect the recently developed products.

The luxurious office on the top floor had hidden security compartments built into its interior walls.

Howard walked over to a display table. After triple verification through his fingerprint, retina, and voice, the wall immediately parted to either side. In the first safe compartment that protruded outward lay a square machine.

The more Kyle looked at it, the more familiar it seemed. The device fit perfectly in one hand. Its screen took up only a small portion, while the larger lower half was occupied by dial buttons.

"Isn’t this a cell phone?!" Kyle was dumbfounded. A keypad wireless phone?

"Yes, it’s a cell phone." Howard shrugged and explained, "Ever since you gave me that phone product a few months ago, I had the industry’s elite personnel dismantle and study it day and night. We discovered that many of its intricate hardware components couldn’t be mass-produced with current manufacturing capabilities."

"However, many of that phone’s functions were far too advanced. As a portable communication device, it only needs to fulfill people’s current need for instant communication. So I made the mass-producible phone design more direct and simple. After the war ends, I plan to first display it at the Future Technology Exhibition in New York Plaza, then build communication towers throughout New York for its initial rollout."

Before Howard could finish, Kyle was already too impressed to speak.

This was what a true technology tycoon was like. Give him one phone, and he could figure out how to mass-produce and promote it. It was only 1944! In just a few years, wireless phones would be publicly available?

Kyle was still somewhat dazed when Howard had already retracted the first safe and opened the second hidden compartment in the adjacent wall.

Click—

This time, the commotion was clearly much greater. As white cold air poured out from the hidden safe room, what emerged was not a safe but a massive desktop machine packed with wires. It looked like an intricate assembly of countless electronic components, with various indicator lights continuously flashing across its surface and a faint hum accompanying its operation.

"Howard, don’t tell me this is a supercomputer?" Kyle forced a smile.

Howard only smiled without answering. He lightly clapped his hands and gave the massive desktop machine an instruction. "Jarvis, say hello to Kyle."

Ja… Jarvis?

Before Kyle could process it, the huge desktop machine emitted a series of beeps. Then, in the voice of a composed man, it responded, "Mr. Howard, welcome back. Mr. Kyle, good evening. Welcome as my guest."

Kyle’s heart jolted. Even with his composure, he was utterly shocked, nearly flinging the phone from his hand.

"Hahaha, I scared you, didn’t I?" Howard patted Kyle’s stiff shoulder and explained, "It’s just a supercomputer. I merely equipped it with intelligent voice recognition, along with programmed responses for greetings."

"Why did you name him ‘Jarvis’?" Kyle asked, still unable to recover.

"Jarvis is the name of the butler at my current residence. It makes me feel very close and reassured." Howard looked at the supercomputer before him, his eyes full of anticipation. In a deep voice, he said, "Using the computer mainframe and intelligent chip you gave me, I created the world’s first supercomputer with a semi-intelligent program and named it Jarvis. I also hope that one day, rather than relying solely on programmed system commands, it can truly become an Artificial Intelligence life-form with thoughts and break free from this hardware."

"So that’s how it is." Kyle let out a breath and fell silent for a moment.

Was this a fortunate mistake, or were father and son truly cut from the same mold?

Jarvis, the Artificial Intelligence of the future twenty-first century and Iron Man’s personal butler, had actually been created in its most primitive form by his father ahead of time.

Perhaps Artificial Intelligence Jarvis will be fully born before the twenty-first century even arrives… Kyle felt both excited and worried. He had originally thought that he himself was already the greatest butterfly effect in the Marvel world.

Who would have thought that the two green Item Cards he had drawn would bring even greater potential changes to the world’s future after he traded them to Howard?

Technology was the primary productive force! Change the world with determination!

"Oh, right." As if recalling something, Howard put the Jarvis supercomputer back into the hidden room and strode toward the access controls for the third hidden wall.

"What else is there? Please show it all at once. I can barely take it anymore," Kyle said with a slight gasp.

"This is different from those two physical items just now. Although it has been researched, it’s completely unusable for now." As Howard spoke, the third hidden wall pushed out a safe containing only a pencil-drawn blueprint.

"What is this?" Kyle picked up the blueprint in surprise. Since it had been stored in the third hidden room, it proved that its value was no less than that of the unfinished Jarvis.

"A little over a month ago, I conducted in-depth research on the Tesseract and ultimately deduced the structure of a new element not found on the periodic table. I believe it can replace Infinite Energy!"

Howard said regretfully, "Unfortunately, even with the structural blueprint for the new element, it must be artificially synthesized through the repeated acceleration and collision of high-energy particle beams. With current technology, we still can’t fully manufacture a finished product."