It reminds of this detail from a Neal Stephenson book I read called Anathem (the book is... fine). Ignoring the merits of the book as a whole, there is one funny detail that I think would be useful. In this world, there is an ancient order of logicians and mathematicians, each members of various sects with various roles to play in the continuity of society. The task of one of the sects was to analyze all new works and point out where the author thought they had an original idea only to be shown that it had been written about thousands of years prior. Does seem to be where we find ourselves often these days.