Andrew Gaertner
Bio
I believe that to live in a world of peace and justice we must imagine it first. For this, we need artists and writers. I write to reach for the edges of what is possible for myself and for society.
Stories (14/0)
Welcome Home, Leviathan
In April of this year sensors in the Milwaukee River detected five lake sturgeon moving upriver. These are some of the first adult sturgeon returning since restocking began in 2006 as part of a multi-year effort to return the sturgeon to Wisconsin rivers and lakes. In 2021, a 100-year-old, 240-pound sturgeon was caught in the Detroit River in Michigan. Both of these rivers were once much more polluted than they are now.
By Andrew Gaertner2 years ago in Earth
Throw Away Your Old Phone
Two of my favorite writers recently inspired me on Medium. In January, Cory Doctorow shared his essay about how the Luddites were forerunners of science fiction writers. The Luddites were artisanal weavers known for burning mills and resisting the Industrial Revolution. In my college years, I considered myself an Earth First neo-Luddite, so his essay caught my eye. Doctorow argues that it wasn’t the machines that they hated, but the consequences of the way the machines are used. Luddites could imagine the future, and their movement was an act of resistance to that future. In that sense, Luddites were like today’s science fiction authors; when we imagine the future, it is not about the machines per se, but rather about the moral choices caused by the introduction of those machines.
By Andrew Gaertner2 years ago in Futurism