Everyone here seems focused on bots, as does the author of the post. The bigger problem (as also stated in the latter half of the post) is straight-forward: there product wasn't very good. Who is asking for digg to return, save for a very (very) tiny community of nostalgic diehards? Digg is irrelevant. That doesn't mean the internet is dead. It just means digg is.

For those following closely, I highly recommend Dropsite News and Breaking Points. Excellent coverage.

Uh no, not at all. First of all, America is a Republic. Republics with capitalist economies express power through property ownership, not simply voting. I’m actually arguing ownership is more powerful than even a vote, though you’d certainly want both. You can tell this true by observing that a billionaire in America is more powerful and influential than a factory worker, even though they have the same vote in the democracy.

Mission statements and blog posts are meaningless. Cap tables steer behavior and simultaneously protect interests. Stop forming unions or opining on Hacker News. We need to find a way to get citizens on the cap table in a meaningful way (and not at the very, very, very, very end of the waterfall underneath debt holders, hedge funds, governments, preferred investors). We are building this world for us. As it stands, don't fret about a robot taking your job: just make sure you own one of the robots.