It caught my eye for several reasons. First, my friend has been deceased for at least four (4) years. That is enough reason to feel surprised and shocked.
Second, although my friend was great at introducing people to each other, I doubt that he had in his will that LinkedIn should continue doing so. My friend died at the time where electronic social networking was becoming an interesting phenomenon. The email seems to have come from an interest group that he very likely set up and never left. So LinkedIn has continued doing something on behalf of this group.
Third, this got me thinking that unless you tell LinkedIn or someone in this interest group what happened to my friend, the website will continue introducing people to each other. As if human life would lose its value for the sake of the purpose of this website: making intelligent connections. The website seems automatically programmed, or supported, by so called 'intelligent tools' which based on your personal information and electronic behaviour, will find the right people to introduce you to.
So the issue of how intelligent technology can become makes me think about what Stephen Hawking has recently said about Artificial Intelligence. He is concerned that if not properly checked or programmed to respect human life at all cost, Artificial Intelligence can take over the human race and create new forms of 'life' in the planet, many of which would make logical sense to this intelligence at the expense of human life.
How is this a systems problem? Well, take your pick. We are creating technology systems that can become blind to how their creators see the world. We are creating blindness to human events (death in this case). We are not properly balancing human with online interaction.
For websites like LinkedIn the obvious solution would be to ask us, human beings, to inform them of any event or changing circumstance in our lives. So far LinkedIn is good in asking us about changes in our jobs, skills, knowledge and connections. I wonder if they are going to create an 'obituary' for people who die. But would you like it to fill it in?
At Rajan's funeral I met his family and friends, and believe it or not, I am connected to one or two of them via LinkedIn!
So this blogpost is the best obituary I can write for him. Rest in peace dear friend. Even if LinkedIn does not leave you and I in peace!
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