Al Gore Rhythms only take you so far

Have you been following the blogosphere conversation about Techmeme, its new leaderboard, piling on, and groupthink?

Seems like everybody who's complaining also visits regularly. Me too, but I do agree it incents bloggers to behave like iron filings drawn to a magnet.

Maybe that's the trouble with relying on algorithms. They can seek out items like other items, but math has a harder time detecting something original and new (while also being important or consequential). You need human judgment for that, just like you need people to intervene in the social problem of juvenile and rude behavior in comments, even though the techies keep saying identity systems are the answer.

Human brains and machine brains dividing the labor in a smart way. Calacanis isn't all wrong when it comes to that part.