# Oxford's James Martin died

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oxfords-james-martin-died/671456>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 17, 2013, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oxfords-james-martin-died/671456 "2013-10-17T02:52:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Came\_in\_like\_a\_Wrecking\_Ball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@Came\_in\_like\_a\_Wrecking\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Came_in_like_a_Wrecking_Ball)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oxfords-james-martin-died/671456/1 "2013-10-17T02:52:01Z")

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> **[James Martin, Technology Consultant and Oxford Benefactor, Dies at 79...](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/03/technology/business-computing/james-martin-technology-consultant-and-author-dies-at-79.html?_r=0)**
>
> Mr. Martin was an influential figure in information technology who used his fortune to study the problems and opportunities confronting the 21st-century world.

I searched the boards and couldn’t find a thread about this, so I started one- four months late.

He was an Oxford grad who worked in computer intelligence, namely the Singularity. He predicted the modern internet in his 70s book The Wired World. His most recent book, from '06, was The Meaning of the 21st Century.

Four months ago he drowned after having a heart attack while swimming off the coast of his private island near Bermuda.

Had he lived to be 100, maybe he would have seen the Singularity and even lived forever.

He dreamt of a world in which people would be more connected than anyone could imagine, post-Singularity. And in the end he died alone in the ocean, betrayed by his own heart and found floating lifelessly by a kayaker.

I don’t even know what the fuck to say about that.

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**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oxfords-james-martin-died/671456/2 "2013-10-17T13:32:27Z")

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> [@Came\_in\_like\_a\_Wrecking\_Ball](#):
>
> I don’t even know what the fuck to say about that.

The saying that comes to mind for me is “Shit happens.”

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**Author:** ![Came\_in\_like\_a\_Wrecking\_Ball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@Came\_in\_like\_a\_Wrecking\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Came_in_like_a_Wrecking_Ball)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oxfords-james-martin-died/671456/3 "2013-10-17T21:42:18Z")

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> [@bump](#):
>
> The saying that comes to mind for me is “Shit happens.”

Either that, or “the irony, it burns!”

He spent his life dreaming of the connectivity between future humans, and in the end he died all alone in the middle of the ocean, his final interaction being with a kayaker as he floated lifelessly.