Jeremiah Tolbert

Everyone knows a dozen author web­sites to read, and the indus­try blogs that tell you about the lat­est movies and TV shows. But what if you’re inter­ested in hear­ing about out­landish ideas you might pil­fer for a story? Or maybe you just want a quick kick of reality-​​based sen­sawunda. What web­sites to do you turn to for that? Try this list for starters.

1. Futurismic

Almost solely the hard work of Paul Graham Raven, Futurismic picks up on the near-​​future sci­ence news faster than any­one else I read at the moment. More impor­tantly, Futurismic is not afraid to con­tem­plate the ram­i­fi­ca­tions and impli­ca­tions of new tech devel­op­ments. Paul has the mind of a great sci­ence fic­tion writer in the mak­ing, I think. I some­times wish he’d spend less time on Futurismic and more time writ­ing short stories.

Futurismic also fea­tures reg­u­lar guest columns–one of which is by Brenda Cooper on trends in futur­ism. Those are well worth a read as well.

2. Curious Expeditions

For a lapsed world trav­eler such as myself, Curious Expeditions is a real treat. Written by Michelle Enemark and Dylan Thuras , the site doc­u­ments weird and obscure loca­tions around the globe. Their fix­a­tion on cab­i­nets of curiosi­ties have given me many ideas for the Dr. Roundbottom project.

Their pho­tos are always visu­ally rich and unlike any­thing else you will find else­where. It’s a source of his­tor­i­cal sensawunda.

3. Post Secret

Post Secret is a project in which peo­ple mail anony­mous post cards with secrets in to the project cre­ator. Each week, he posts a new batch of cards.

This one has almost noth­ing to do with spec­u­la­tive fic­tion exactly, but for a writer, it’s an amaz­ing insight into the inner lives of other human beings. I always come away from the Sunday posts of secrets feel­ing a lit­tle more wise and a lit­tle changed by the expe­ri­ence. I can’t say that I’ve used any of the secrets directly in my work, but read­ing the site is def­i­nitely fur­ther­ing my under­stand­ing of how peo­ple work in a more gen­eral sense.

4. Sentient Developments

The project of Canadian futur­ist George Dvorsky, this site brings me buck­ets of news about robot­ics and research in arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence. It does take a bit of a cred­i­bil­ity hit by pay­ing lip-​​service to the dis­cred­ited “aquatic ape” the­ory in my opin­ion, but I can under­stand the appeal of such wacky the­o­ries. Regardless, it’s a great source of sci­ence news.

5. Douglas Rushkoff

Here’s another blog by an eclec­tic and inter­est­ing thinker. Douglas leans left polit­i­cally, so you may not be inter­ested in his cur­rent fix­a­tion about tak­ing the world back from cor­po­ra­tions, but he’s been a great source for me of off-​​the-​​beaten-​​path eco­nomic news. About every­thing else, Ruskoff is inter­ested, it seems to me, in the future of human­ity. This can be a lit­tle pub­lic­ity heavy at times, as he is sell­ing a book, but when he shares an arti­cle, it’s almost always worth a read.

6. Strange Maps

There have been a lot of very, very strange maps drawn through­out his­tory. This blog brings you scans of the some of the stranger ones. Not much else to it, and that’s why I love it.

7. Street Use

This is another sim­ple site. It doc­u­ments with pho­tographs the unusual inven­tions and mod­i­fi­ca­tions of off-​​the-​​shelf tech in 3rd world coun­tries. They quote William Gibson in their expla­na­tion: “The street finds its own use for things.”

Possibly a great web­site if you’re writ­ing post-​​apocalyptic SF.

8. Centauri Dreams

Interested in space explo­ration? This blog by the Tau Zero Foundation is all about that, and tan­gen­tially often about the notion of alien life. I some­times find it an odd read, but it’s def­i­nitely rich with SF mate­r­ial for the writer and afficionado.

So, what are some sites that you think are good brain fod­der for the SF type?