For a lot of questions, there are frequently existing books/stories/movies/games that explore the theme that the question asks. A question on AI souls trapped in VR hells recently led me to mention Surface Detail by Ian Banks. Another question about gods competing for attention of worshipers led me to mention Small Gods by Terry Pratchett. These are just two recent examples.
What I often find is that for any given (good) question, we'll get several answers, and many will harken back to a particular existing story that answered the question in a particular way or deeply explored a given topic.
It makes me think that in addition to the answers section of the question, it would be useful to just have a list of "existing stories on this question" that people could contribute to, separate from writing up a full answer. Too often the useful citations are embedded in answers that don't bubble up to the top, or they're scattered around through many different answers.
- Do others agree with me that somehow promoting a list of "Existing source material" in the forum would be useful?
- (If "yes" to Q1) Would it be appropriate to start a practice of editing the original question to put as section of "Existing Source Material" at the end of the question as such things get mentioned in answers or comments?
- (If "yes" to Q1) Is there any way to modify the site to have a more formal way of recording such citations?