TechCrunch had an interesting article on Apollo, a project by Hawthorne Labs to be the "Newspaper of the Future™." It also references Pulse and mentions the dozens of startups trying to be THE news platform.

Apollo supposedly behaves more like Pandora with its algorithmic selection of content. Great. It could be wonderfully accurate.

But how do I get news that makes me think? That pushes me to reconsider my viewpoints as well as others and hopefully helps me become a better person? Will these algorithms become digital blinders as we race towards some bizarre finish line? Will there be social tools to help us engage others in conversation about what we're reading?

One of the reasons I like human curated news is that it provides variety and greater opportunities for humans to engage in discourse. Which is not to say we can't engage our family and friends in regards to what we read on these sites. We can, and should. Whether or not we do is the scariest part.