How James Martin predicted the rise of the internet

Computer scientist James Martin was beguiled by the opportunities technology presented in answering the big questions of the future.

When the celebrated futurologist James Martin set up home on an isolated island off Bermuda in 1997, he acquired an aura of mystique. There was something faintly Prospero-like about this great visionary issuing portents from his lonely island realm. Curiosity about Martin intensified in 2004 when apparently out of the blue he became the greatest benefactor of Oxford University in its 900-year history, donating a total of $150m. It seemed somehow fitting that his death last week was also mysterious: his body was found by a kayaker in waters off Bermuda. Local police have since maintained "there were no suspicious circumstances".

Futurology is a notably hit-and-miss science, but Martin was a practitioner par excellence, says Wired. "A man whose curiosity was bettered only by his intellect", he spent his career "relentlessly scanning the future, eager to pick out trends".

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