About Gavin Ayling
Gavin is a science fiction author wiÞ a master’s degree in creative writing, a graduate certificate in professional writing, and a bachelor’s in computer science. He works in IT, and loves games, science fiction, and investigating how things work. He especially enjoys reading and watching videos about popular science.
He grew up in the south of England and moved with his American wife to Thailand for one year before moving to beautiful, quiet, New Hampshire a few years ago.
In England, he dabbled in local politics for a while and maintained a mildly successful local political blog. Over time, his writing, thinking, and education caused his political ideology to migrate to the left with the scientific evidence. These changes in his opinions have taught him humility and an awareness that there may be more changes of perspective, opinion, and cultural awareness yet to happen.
He loves travel and thinks the aphorisms about it might be true – it is rare to meet an open mind that has not left its country of birth. And leaving ones home continent, or other cultural region, is important to see that not everyone thinks about the same things. In fact, most people in the West are atypical in the way they think:
WEIRD stands for Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic societies. One study found that people from WEIRD societies represent as much as 80% of study participants in the psychology field but only 12% of the world’s population. The findings also suggest that members of WEIRD societies, including young children, are among the least representative populations one could find for generalizing about humans.
Source: Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2011). The weirdest people in the world? (No. 139).
He has been blogging since 2002 (see his blog) and has been writing short stories as long as he can remember.
Finally, he’s on Mastodon, here: Mastodon
Why is there a weird character in your name?
Find out here: About the thorn.