There have been a few baddies over the years trying to amass such a thing.
If only they had been alive in the future then it would have been so easy.
Brewster Kahle (founder of the Internet Archive, my favourite source for free and legal downloadable music) just delivered an amazing presentation called Universal Access to All Human Knowledge. He basically wants to archive all the information ever created in the world. Notes from the presentation taken by Cory Doctorow can be found here.
Can you imagine having free and quick access to all the information in the world. Man alive, I can waste time with the best of them on the internet, but to have literally all the information in the world at my fingertips would be too cool for words. I don't know what I'd do with it like, but it would be nice to find out.
For the nay-sayers out there, let me whet your appetite for universal knowledge with this book which is available online thanks to the Creative Commons licence. Sit back, buckle up and get ready for the might that is The How and the Tao of old Time Banjo.
I think we have a banjo in the attic somewhere. I might just have to get it out and see if I can rip chords with the best of them.
Changing direction slightly. President Bush is so god-awful stupid that this is probably true. It wouldn't even surprise me if this was actually the President but names had to be changed to protect the uncommonly dumb.
Lastly, this is just another example of why we'll tolerate the French, just that little bit longer.