1449: Adventures Among the Galaxies: How Science Fiction Explores AI and Climate Change with Environmental Advocate and Author Eleanor Bonenfant

Robert Plank 0:01 We're here chatting with Eleanor bone, who is a science fiction author, and she's an environmentalist, and all this environmentalism inspired her to write a very amazing, excellent book, which you should check out right now. It's called Adventures among the galaxies and the evolution of AI, and it's an exciting standalone sequel to Adventures among the Maya and the secret of the crystal amulet. Now, Eleanor is an avid reader. She's taken creative writing courses. She enjoys gardening and home decorating. She's taught music, and she's worked for over four decades as a church organist and a choir director. So we're here to talk about her amazing book, about her writing and her self expression and everything that she has going on. So Eleanor, glad to be speaking with you.

Eleanor Bonenfant 0:52 I'm glad to see you also this morning. Robert, yeah, well, we'll

Robert Plank 0:57 just have a nice, fun, amazing conversation. And so what has you excited lately? What has you focused and passionate?

Eleanor Bonenfant 1:04 Well, I am actually impressed with the fact that I'm not the only one who's worried about the state of our planet. I just read it recently. I read an article in a New Yorker, and they have, they are very up to date on what's happening with the world. And so I thought, well, maybe they read my book. No, I think everybody's interested in the state of our the heating of the planet and the wildfires that are taking place. That's, of course, what's got me interested.

Robert Plank 1:45 Yes, and we need to be educated. But then to just hear about the the facts and figures is kind of dry. But then to get the escapism, to get the fiction to then have an adventure and let your creative mind get unleashed. But you also learn something and you think about the future, the possibilities, the what ifs that's exciting. And so tell us about what there is to know. What should we know about the environment, the future, and about your books? Well, I think the

Eleanor Bonenfant 2:16 Yeah, what you said is perfectly right. What I the my imagination took over, and I like to mix the Sci Fi story with the facts and the figures about what's happening with the world. We need to reverse this climate crisis that's going on. And so if every one of us does one little thing to do it, it became a can be come a global effort, and we can put less emissions into the air by going electric, solar power, wind power, instead of using fossil fuels. And so that's where my message, basically, the message is going, but the imagination and the and the the fun part between the Sci Fi is what makes it an interesting read,

Robert Plank 3:12 yes, and I'm sure it scratches the itch, right of the need to be creative and put something out there. And so there's a lot said about the environment, climate change, global warming, all these things, but there's also all this information. So what is the just the bare essentials, like what's happening as far as the CO two, the warming, the emissions, if someone said, I've just come out from under a rock, I've come from some other planet, and what's going on with climate change. What's the simple answer?

Eleanor Bonenfant 3:43 I don't know if there's a simple answer to that. I believe that it's actually the way that our planet is suffering from the overuse of I don't know how to put it, gas. Gas powered cars. Everyone has maybe one or two cars in their driveway, and we're running on gas, and that's, I think that's the main thing. There's other ways that we can stop the emissions coming. But I think that's mainly it. It's our, our it's the it's the people's our people is overuse of the things that are burning and putting emissions in the air. I don't know that it's as simple. It's not going to be easy, it's going to be expensive, and it's going to cost us money, and it's also going to take time, but we are going to change to electricity,

Robert Plank 4:57 yes, and it's super silly to hear. Out when they first invented cars, they tried to make them electric, didn't they? But we in the 1920s we just didn't have the technology yet, and then we fell into this using the remains of dinosaurs, right? And there's only a limited amount. We said, Hey, let's just use the dinosaur juice to power everything. And but now we're realizing that won't last forever, and it's warming the planet, and then we overuse, as you say. And I heard some statistic once where they said that in Los Angeles, there's four cars to every one person, which is crazy, right? Like, how do you get away with so many cars? And so how did that lead to the science fiction? Because I'm sure it can be overwhelming, frustrating, this idea of us slowly killing our planet and saying, Well, there's not a lot to do immediately. It can be done. It's just expensive, it's slow. So how did that transition into writing the science fiction

Eleanor Bonenfant 5:55 Well, first of all, I was made aware of an article in The New York Times about the decline of the Jaguar, and the Jaguar lives in the rain forest, and it's because the rain forest is being diminished by our our peoples using it, so that therefore the Jaguar and the other Big Cats are suffering. So it's a biome theory, the the one depends on another, the Jaguars depended on the rain forest, and then the rain forest, the herbivores and the carnivores all suffered because of the decline in the rainforest, and it was all because we we burned it down because we wanted to make coffee or whatever. They burned it down to grow things, and they the so the the decline of the rainforest is we need the trees. That's the basic story. The trees do the oxygen and absolutely the balance of the CO two and the and the oxygen. So we need the trees, and so therefore we need to stop, yeah, are these wildfires, and they're happening because the planet's warming up, so we stop using fossil fuels. It's going to take time. It'll take time then, and it'll cost each of us a lot of money, because we're going to have to switch to electric cars.

Robert Plank 7:30 Yes, and it can get very like, depressing when you read about this. Don't you like the Amazon rainforest in particular? I don't fully understand it, but there's some kind of, like, huge function it provides, as far as, like, there's like, a burp, they call it. I think we're like, the Amazon rainforest, especially, like, helps to get rid of a lot of the CO two, and then if it gets past that point of no return, there's no coming back. Similar to, you kill off a certain species, right? You kill off some insect or some Jaguar, and then they're extinct. There, that's it. And then it affects the rest of the food chain, and then it just causes this whole reaction. And so as far as the the books themselves that you've developed, can you tell us about those? Because there's just, there's so many options these days, right, of different books to read. And so how does your book stand out? Why should someone read it?

Eleanor Bonenfant 8:22 Well, I think it's, I think it's a fun book. It also has a message, of course, but the message is subliminal. It's in there behind all the fun and the the the space travelers that come to earth, back to Earth. They started out here. They came back to Earth to and they join in the effort to change and redo this crisis of this climate crisis. But I think that, if you're interested in it, in fact, there's a lot of facts that happen as they travel back through the galaxies, meteorites and asteroids and all the what the different every planet has something unique about it. And so as they come back, I did a lot of research. Of course, a lot of the research that I did has sort of landed on the floor and never made it to the book. But it be, it basically led me to the story. And I have that in my in the back of my head, when I'm reading about when I'm writing and and then, of course, my imagination goes wild. And we, we have this lovely balance of space and earth in this book. But there's a lot of facts in it. However, there's a lot of fun too. It's, it's those romance. Send. There's adventure. They have space travel. They have they have a place where they're going to build an ark. This is Plan B, get some of the people off the Earth, see if they can set up a community someplace else,

Robert Plank 10:21 very cool. So there's a lot going on. And what is the age group? Is it like a young adult science fiction or adults? Or who's it for?

Eleanor Bonenfant 10:28 Well, it's not for children. There's specific things in it that may may not be good for children, but we have it's basically young adults or or older people, because we are an aging population, and we are and, and I think as we get older, we are more involved in saving things and and and looking after our planet, looking after ourselves and looking after our future, our children, we want them to have our children, our grandchildren. Want them to have a safe, happy place to live. Yes.

Robert Plank 11:14 So we it seems like we have these new responsibilities, right? Like, do you figure, if someone was living in the year 1000 would they care at all about what we were doing 1000 plus years later? Probably not, because what didn't even matter. But now, the things that we do affect the future, especially if we destroy the planet or make it a better place to be, and maybe we use technology to fix it. And I like how you said there about you do all this research, but then a lot of it goes unused, right? Because you don't want to use it. You want to have, like, a large playground, a plane, right? You want to have all this whole world. Is all these planets, there's the arc, there's meteorites, asteroids, but there's a so much you just see the tip of the iceberg. You see that little bit. And so as far as the way that your books come together. Are you the kind of person that you wake up from a dream with an idea? Does it take weeks or months? How is your writing process

Eleanor Bonenfant 12:09 takes years? I do. I said, I sit in my chair and I write everything by hand. I get ideas, and I'm writing everything by hand. Then I go to the computer the next day, and I put it in the computer, and as I do it, I'm editing it. I'm getting rid of what I don't want. I'm changing I might spend a half an hour just changing the way a sentence goes. Is a verb come here? Or does it come here? I do a lot of that, and it's time consuming, but the result is the manuscript that goes to the to freeze press, and they have editors who I pay to fix the book, and they I really appreciate the work that they did to help me make a really good book out of it. A lot I did a lot of editing by their suggestions. And then, of course, some of their suggestions I didn't accept, but I did a lot of editing with for them. Yeah, was really good. Good. A good situation where we work together to make this a good book.

Robert Plank 13:33 Yeah, and many minds looking at it right? There's you writing it by hand, and you edit it to type it up, and then other people look at it and it's, I'm sure, I'm sure that you've seen the same as me, where sometimes you read like a mass market paperback and there's little typos. You're thinking, there's some of these, you know, books were with big publishing companies, and there's still a type of Wentzel book that maybe they printed 1000s or millions of copies, you know, like, how did that stay in there? And so it's just like, there's definitely that need to look at it and refine it again and again. So that way it's, I mean, as perfect as it can be, at least free of typos, at least make sense. And so you, you put it through all these different processes and people, but then there's always that, that problem, but also benefit these days of AI, right? It's so easy to go to AI and say, write me the whole entire book, just spit it out for me, and then it's done. But that kind of takes away the humanity, right? It can generate a lot, but it's not very good. And so what's your thoughts on AI? Are you sometimes maybe discouraged because you say, I put all this time into it, but an AI can just go and make some other book.

Eleanor Bonenfant 14:44 Okay, so ai, ai can only regurgitate what's programmed into it. So I think that I would never, I would never, ever use. Use AI for that. AI has a lot of good, valuable things about it, and it's fast tracking our health system. It's helping us to live longer. Since 1900 to now, our lifespan has doubled roughly and apparently, some scientists agree that in the next 10 to 15 years, our lifespan will be doubled again because of AI, because of the way that it can figure out our health plan and make us stronger, healthier, longer lives. I think that AI has a wonderful, wonderful place in our living but as far as I'm concerned, it takes the humanity out of writing.

Robert Plank 15:47 Okay, so it has its uses, right in the same way a pocket calculator or a hammer or a cell phone has its uses, and it's like, well, it works better in some areas and others. And as far as AI extending our lifespans and being great with health, you hear amazing stories right here that it can look at X rays and, like, detect cancer, like, 510, years before the actual diagnosis, and all these amazing things. But what have you heard specifically about, like? Is there any kind of like, amazing example you've come across about AI helping us with our health.

Eleanor Bonenfant 16:24 Yes, actually, I just spoke to a friend, yeah, at the last couple of days, who has cancer and he uses AI for diet. He's what kind of diet should I use for by specific cancer and and AI spits it out, gives it the way he should, what he should eat, how she should, he should exercise, what he should do, his lifestyle and his diet. And it's just I was, I was impressed and happy to learn that he was using AI to help him through his as cancer treatments. Very cool.

Robert Plank 17:05 Yeah, yeah. So it can customize and personalize, and, I mean, it save our lives in many ways, right? And give us this feedback and the advice. And I know, like, there's some of the young kids have, like the smart watches, or all the health data, and there's ways you can feed it all kinds of information and things that are even beyond me. And so I know that this latest book, as we've said, it's called Adventures among the galaxies and the evolution of AI. So how does AI come into play in there? What's going on?

Eleanor Bonenfant 17:38 Well, AI has evolved maybe a little beyond what we are doing right now, because it's a sort of futuristic what lies in the future for us is that in there, AI has learned in this book to multitask and be self informative and to share information with each other. There's many well, robots, or bots says they sort of nickname them, and they're working with people and working with the situation, whatever situation they need to think the the AI can go through millions a day of ideas about what might take a research situation years to discover. And so AI in this book is is helping people by fast tracking their help, and also they are helping people with their managing, their just daily lives. They can do the gardening, they can clean the house. They do all these things to help people. I think that it was a little hard for me to write futuristic things, because you kind of have to really imagine it, because there's no there's no book that you could say, Okay, this is going to happen, or that's going to happen, which we're just guessing it. We're just making an interesting sort of this could possibly happen. This would be all right, our Yeah, our future depends a lot on the artificial intelligence.

Robert Plank 19:40 Yes, and it's such a weird just creation that's, it's everywhere, right? It's all in our lives. And this idea that the computer can, you know, go through 1000s, millions of records that would otherwise like, take a lifetime, and it's done in 10 minutes, it blows the mind. And it's good that there is the the science fiction. In and the books we can read to, like, get these ideas in our head. Like, remember when Star Trek said, like, here, no, here's flip phones. And that was such an amazing idea, but now we understand it. Or they were walking around with the little tablets, and they would, like, sign on the things, and now there's iPads. So it's like, we imagine this technology existing first, and then we understand it, get it in our heads. And then when the technology is possible, we think, Okay, well now I now it's in my subconscious right now I'm understanding it's not such a scary thing that I am to avoid. And it's reassuring, because there's always that, that fear of that, if someone's of an older age and they will avoid technology, avoid computer, but you have, like your friend that said, hey, you know, I use AI to figure out the cancer in my diet, and it's something to be used for all ages, both young and old. And so we've talked about AI and science fiction and your books and your process, but in this conversation we're having, is there a missing question? Is there a question that I should be asking you? I just don't know what you're asking.

Eleanor Bonenfant 21:06 Well, you might ask about the literary processes in the book. There are, Alliteration is involved, and we also have put in my mind. Now, I don't know if I can find that or not, but we have, we have what was called the Law of Accelerating Returns, involved in the AI, and comes from a book by Ray Kurtzweil, who wrote, The Singularity is Near, and he's talking about the development of AI. But so that's one of the things that I got in my research, and the Law of Accelerating Returns, is that the machine will improve its own abilities by feedbacking cycle. And then it shares this information with other AI, and they the not that they're going to go amuck like some science fiction movies. They basically are using what is being programmed into them, but it's accelerating. It's exponentially growing, and so it's some things in the writing process, cause are gotten from my courses in writing, and it's, I think the process of writing is more of using Your own imagination and then revising it so that it's believable, or people will, what? What's the saying they

Eleanor Bonenfant 23:17 I'm tired now. Just bear their disbelief. They have to let their disbelief go and let their imagination go. We're trying to encourage that and disbelief. Yes, yeah.

Robert Plank 23:33 And that's a good approach, right? You say, Let me think of something amazing and fantastical, and maybe that's too crazy, and then I'll go and revise it, and then it will be more grounded in reality. And that's why me, personally, I don't like fantasy. I like science fiction, right? Fantasy can always invent some new spell or new potion and something new happens. I really like the how science fiction has the rules that you establish, right? Like Isaac Asimov says, Hey, here's the three laws of robotics, here's psycho history. And then you play within that kind of like how the speed of light has its own rules. And if your science fiction says, Hey, here's warm holes or faster than light, then you establish new rules, but you still kind of have to stick with that right time travel. You say, here's the causality. So it's, it tickles the mind, doesn't it, too, and it keeps the brain active to say, here's this adventure, and here's this world that we've created. And it's just, it's great to hear about. And so you have these amazing books, and the new one is called Adventures among the galaxies and the evolution of AI by Eleanor bonafence. That's EB bonefant, and that's is about Mara, a woman with a mysterious past and a connection to the Maya civilization realizes a truth that many others seem to be able to ignore, that we must cherish. And protect what we have before it is too late. And if you're the kind of person that likes science fiction adventure, you said visiting other planets, and also with a little bit of a message hidden in there, that's always great about the climate change message. And so should someone just go and search you on Amazon to find these books set.

Eleanor Bonenfant 25:24 I think that's the, the easiest way to do it right now. And it's a it's it's not really needed. But if you read the first book, it gives you a background for the first book. Mara is our female heroine, and she is the one who we are following through her lifespans. And so she so that's, I think it's not necessary, but the adventures among the Maya is also a good pre prequel to this book, above the galaxies.

Robert Plank 26:02 Very amazing. And what's the next book you've written these first few you can't just stop, right? I'm sure there's more to come.

Eleanor Bonenfant 26:11 Well, that's a good question. I've often asked myself that now, what could I do? Is there another is there another book in me? But I don't know. I'm thinking right now of writing down the ancestry of the family, so that might be my next book. But it would be interesting if we could go into the future with this, this line of characters, and see what happens to them.

Robert Plank 26:39 Ooh, well, exciting and amazing, and that's why we have to not just buy the book, but also follow the author herself. So you go to Amazon, you search E, B, B, O N, E N, F, A N, T, E, B, bonne font, and you find this book, adventures among the galaxies and the evolution of AI, and you find out what Mara is up to. And you there is Ruth, Daniel and Daniel's parents. They get to Earth, they carry their planets special crystals. There's poachers, there's kidnappers, there's advanced artificial intelligence. It's an amazing read by Friesen press and by EB bonafant. You want to check it out. It's at Adventures among the galaxies and the evolution of AI on Amazon. And before I let you go Miss Eleanor, it's time for the scary part of the show where I try to stump you by asking about a fun quote or lesson that has served you in life. So Does anything come to mind as far as a fun quote or lesson?

Eleanor Bonenfant 27:42 Oh, well, I think the lesson we learn is that we can't depend, we can't depend on the past or the future, that we have to live for the now we should be living for what's happening now, and so I guess that contradicts my futuristic book, but in our life, in our life, we need to be very, very aware of what's happening with us and with our families. Yeah, all right, well, and I think, yeah,

Robert Plank 28:16 that is helpful for climate change, right? Because it's too tempting to say, oh, we'll fix it in some other century. And you say, No, well, what small action can we take now to make a difference for the future? And in that spirit, Does anything come into mind as far as something we can do now in this current year? If we're concerned about climate change, should we look into getting an electric car or a cycle more what? What's a small action we can do today, right now for climate change.

Eleanor Bonenfant 28:45 A lot of the people, several of the people that I know, have bought hybrid cars, where the gas and the electricity combined, which really they say they use less than half, maybe a quarter of the gas that they would normally use, because the electricity of the car takes over. If you can manage that, to to do that, that would be great saying, but if you can't, we're still driving a gas car like my like I am, reduce your trips, make one trip, do several errands and then go home and park it. Don't be running to the store with every everything you think you need. Wait till you need a lot of things and make one trip do it. There's little things, just little things that we can do if we have to replace our furnace go with an electric furnace and and there. There are just several little things that we can do to make less fossil fuels, doing emissions in the air. Everybody can do one little thing, yeah.

Robert Plank 30:00 And imagine what that would add up to just by having that little bit of awareness and saying, Hey, my next car maybe, if I don't want to fully Go Electric, hey, I can go hybrid. If I, you know, if I get the new appliance, I can get the electric one instead just these small, simple actions. And it's a wonderful message. And we've been speaking to miss Eleanor. Bonifant, about it. EB bonnefant, the author of adventures among the galaxies and the evolution of AI. We'll have a link down in the show notes, but if you're just listening, then go and type that in Amazon, adventures among the galaxies and the evolution of AI by EB bonnefant, Miss Eleanor. It's been wonderful speaking with you about a range of topics. I'm glad you're here, and thank you for helping us out today.

Eleanor Bonenfant 30:46 Thank you for all the wonderful questions and the way you've interpreted my book. I appreciate it very much. Robert loved

Robert Plank 30:56 it. You're very welcome, and I appreciate you as a writer, thank you. Thank.