Sadly, this power of invisible revision is going to be used for evil far more often than it will be for good.
Why? Well, consider the incentives. Making a correction in a guidebook is fine, but it is unlikely to sell new copies so much as the All New (Not Really) 2012 Edition. Correcting typos in a book published through a traditional publishing company may require enough bureaucratic effort that only the most egregious will ever be fixed. The biographer's new chapter with previously unknown evidence warrants some sort of new sale...
But the ways of evil provide their own incentives. China can employ ten thousand censors, the NSA can grep and sed, the Texas Board of Education can decree a global search and replace for evolution. Thet don't need any further motivation.
> the Texas Board of Education can decree a global search and replace for evolution
In 2010, Texas voters tossed out two conservative members of the State Board of Education, although conservatives are going to try to regain control in 2012. [1]
In 2011, some of the remaining conservatives on the SBOE lost a battle to try to eliminate some lessons on evolution (they compromised because they realized they didn't have the votes). [2]
Why? Well, consider the incentives. Making a correction in a guidebook is fine, but it is unlikely to sell new copies so much as the All New (Not Really) 2012 Edition. Correcting typos in a book published through a traditional publishing company may require enough bureaucratic effort that only the most egregious will ever be fixed. The biographer's new chapter with previously unknown evidence warrants some sort of new sale...
But the ways of evil provide their own incentives. China can employ ten thousand censors, the NSA can grep and sed, the Texas Board of Education can decree a global search and replace for evolution. Thet don't need any further motivation.