In 1984, when the government changes its opinion about something; the enemy of yesterday becomes today's ally, then all history books are reprinted to make it a

In 1984, when the government changes its opinion about something; the enemy of yesterday becomes today's ally, then all history books are reprinted to make it as if it had always been a historical fact. In the book, he goes on about the printing and delivery process that make make the change possible in a matter of days. That process description, in my opinion, obscured that fact that this is not describing a theoretical possibility that would be embraced by some evil government, but a metaphor for a naturally occurring one. Historical narratives (narratives, not facts) are rewritten progressively as the current understanding (or zeitgeist) evolves. People notice it when the changes go to fast to their taste (what is happening now), but this has always been the case, and comparing history books of different decades show it fairly plainly. To the point, search engines have become the window on knowledge for most people, and thus allow something that goes beyond that orwellian process, an almost direct control over "history", live. For many subjects, it has become almost impossible to find results that are more than 50 months old. You can spend some time trying to do research. But this process is very long, and it is only one subject. So to me a truly open, transparent and independent indexing and search system is one of the most important technological problems to solve.