I'm curious how bots scour Steem and if/how they can detect original content. It seems like there is a war between human users electing content and bots or spammers growing in an artificial way. I don't really know the answer here. If you can make a lot of money creating bots to do the heavy lifting or if you can create thoughtful content, either way the motivation comes down to money. I think very few people on this site are not motivated by money.
I can't help but think of James Joyce who was obsessed with his "immortality" through his work. He really believed that a part of him would live on forever through works like "Ulysses" and "Portrait of an Artist". Probably not "Finnegan's Wake," no one is that crazy. I think what this points to really is an online culture which is unlike a physical culture. I don't doubt that there are more users than there are bots, but the way we elect content is still influenced by spammers and bots. If, for example, you saw the same article twice (think of repetitive replies to posts) in the newspaper, you would unsubscribe from that newspaper. If a person stood on a corner asking everyone the same questions without end (think of bots sweeping the web looking for the same things), you would probably avoid that street corner. I don't believe in AI, but I do believe in humans exploiting programs in very effective ways. Despite the program's calculable superiority, it still answers to the whims and desires of a human.
So this goes back to culture. What connects us? Content, you might say, in a broad way. We all really like to consume great content. But what makes us personally care to go seek out this content? Are we as fanatic about scouring through every post that pops up on the "new" tab like a bot, or do we organically spread our roots to like-minded bloggers? Probably the second. I thought I'd talk about this a little with my first request to "follow me and I'll follow you". I did, but I wonder how new users negotiate their approach to growing their Steem accounts. We're a growing community and I think it would be awesome if the very best content was rewarded with the highest dollar figure, but alas, The Kardashians.