If your government controls history and what is in the history books there won't be anything about these people at all.
"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."
Shame that he went on to work for Zynga. Talk about wasted potential...
Excellent quote!
Even though it's not the same, and in my opinion still not as great as AC, if you liked that game I can highly recommend Stellaris.
> "Bowker is the exclusive U.S. agent for issuing International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs), a universal method of identifying books in print. (...) It is now owned by Cambridge Information Group."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.R._Bowker
Cambridge Information Group? click
> "Cambridge Information Group (CIG) is a privately owned group of information services and publishing companies and educational institutions."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Information_Group
Ok... that kind of sounds like conflicts of interest waiting to happen. Not to mention ISBNs being the kind of fundamental infrastructure/natural monopoly combination where I definitely would not want to see a for-profit entity be in charge of it.
But that's just my gut-feelings. How does this set-up play out in practice?
In a nutshell they have a monopoly and their fees for licensing are extortionate - and they won't even talk to you unless you're "very serious".
They crushed a startup I consulted with eight years or so ago by playing along and then vastly increasing their fees just prior to launch.
Also, their only API (I haven't checked but I doubt things have changed) is EDI.
So, they have important and valuable data that they don't like to license, and make hard to access when they do.
I don't think that something of such importance should be in the hands of a private entity.