Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a neat idea, but I would want identity verification - only upvotes from people well-versed in the field should "count", precisely so it doesn't become Reddit. Which means you would have a chicken-and-egg problem when the service got started and few experts were on it yet.
Perhaps you could get an ordering based only on the upvotes from your friends, and maybe friends of friends with a lesser weight. Maybe also include upvotes from strangers whose past voting pattern is similar to yours. Maybe one can construct some PageRank-esque structure, whose votes should be weighted heavily and whose not, in the light of your own voting history.
That would create an echo chamber. You need to know about research that challenges your assumptions.