About

I'm John Quinn — a science fiction author and data leader who lives at the intersection of imagination and implementation. I believe the best way to understand the future is to both build it and write about it.

My debut novel "Other than Human" (2015) follows a team of young explorers trained to investigate alien exoplanets — until their first mission becomes a fight for survival. Writing fiction lets me explore the ethical, emotional, and societal dimensions of technology in ways that spreadsheets and dashboards never could.

By day, I lead data initiatives in higher education at the University of Virginia, where I've spent over 10 years building systems that help institutions make better decisions. From accessibility platforms to faculty reporting systems, I focus on work that matters — technology in service of people.

I published my debut novel "Other than Human" in 2015 — a science fiction adventure about a crew of teenagers trained to explore alien worlds, set against a dystopian future where corporations control everything, including the people they engineer. It's a story about survival, identity, and what it means to be human when the definition keeps shifting.

Now I'm working on my second novel — a post-AI noir detective story that explores what happens to crime, truth, and justice in a world transformed by artificial intelligence. I continue to write about AI, futures, and the human experience through my Substack newsletter. I'm drawn to stories that sit in the gap between what technology can do and what it should do.

With over 10 years in higher education data at the University of Virginia, I've built and led teams that turn institutional data into actionable insight. My work spans accessibility, analytics, reporting, and the systems that connect them.

I bring a practitioner's perspective to conversations about AI and data — not just theory, but the messy, rewarding reality of deploying these tools in complex organizations.

Because the people building the future and the people imagining it don't talk to each other enough. I write to bridge that gap — to bring the rigor of data work to fiction and the imagination of storytelling to technology leadership.

The futures we get will be shaped by the stories we tell today. I want those stories to be thoughtful, honest, and human.