Your Car Is A Hacker's Paradise, And Manufacturers Are Trying To Stop It--But Can They?

Car manufacturers are in a dilemma: to remain requisite to the market forces of the 21st Century, they need to compete in the development of more computerized vehicles; however, while providing more facile options and tools through computerization, they are posing huge security risks that not only endanger passengers, but also company reputation and market share. 

The main problem with the advancement of computer systems that are the operating system of the vehicle is that they are desperately hackable. A phone is hackable; but having your phone hacked, while posing significant identity risks, doesn't pose the mortal threat that a vehicle speeding along the highway at 120 KMs does. And the issue is the rapid pace of technological change and concomitant complexity. It's one thing to be on the wrong side of technological change when it's a laptop computer or even phone, but a vehicle carrying our precious lives and loved ones is a completely different, more egregious matter. 

Some security researchers recently provided a number of simple tricks hackers can use to hijack a vehicle's breaks and engine. This of course is very serious, and something car manufacturers, and their marketers, will not tell you. As we are moving more into the technological age of vehicles, we are giving up more control of our very lives.

Some researchers now are looking for ways to amend these security issues; however, with more technology comes more complexity, and with more complexity comes more gaps, and thus the need for complex and sophisticated solutions. One possible solution is installing a black box in all vehicles that records all interactions, including hack attacks, that get sent to a centralized network. This would help patch security gaps, and may even provide ways to stop a hack attack in progress. 

The problem with all of this is that such patches and security measures will inevitably lead to a decline of civil liberties and freedoms. A black box will record everything about your vehicle, including where you drive and when; and it will provide access to a remote network and group of personnel to take control of your vehicle. This may sound like a non-issue, but are you really willing to trust Ford or GM with the full-extent of your driving patterns and places you visit? And what if their systems malfunction and your vehicle goes into lock-down? You'll lose control to drive it yourself. 

This is the problem with our technological age: we are seduced into technology's supposed ease of use, and how it 'helps us do more in a day', but it come with a weighty price tag, namely our liberties and rights to privacy. This may be an old argument, but remains one of the most important areas of risk and vigilance of our times. 

These vehicle technologies will continue to disrupt everything. We need to exercise wisdom when seeking to purchase next generation vehicles that may bell and whistle, but are also programmed to lock-down--not at your will, but the will of someone (or some-thing) else.

HOV Electric Re-Charging Lanes? They Sound Cool, But Are They Good For Us?

Freeman Dyson, an English theoretical physicist, in his book Imagined Worlds, talked about trees that could be genetically grown to contain energy that cars could simply plug into to fuel up. This idea seemed so organic and technological that it sparked and stoked my imagination for months. I wondered what Dyson's trees would look like... But it looks like there is a much more practical, utilitarian, less organic solution already in the works:

In a recent article in the National Post, the UK government is beginning tests of wireless battery charger lanes for electric and hybrid vehicles. According to the UK government, there is already a pledge to spend £500 million (over $1 billion CDN) over the next five years in order to be world leaders in this technology, claiming it will "boost jobs and growth in the sector." As well, such tests will "help create a more sustainable road network for England and open up new opportunities for business that transport good across the country." The off-road trials will be held over 18 months, and, if successful, will be advanced to road trials. 

There are of course many questions that come to mind when considering such proclamations by the British government about wireless road technology that supposedly will create jobs and open up opportunities for business:

1. In whose interest is such technology being built? As we've seen with the Tesla ModelX, the technology for electric cars lies beyond the budget of the average Canadian citizen--it would be the same, I'd suspect, in the U.K. This is like an HOV lane for those who can afford electronic vehicles, and therefore upper-middle to upper-class individuals, leaving the rest stuck in traffic.

2. What opportunities are being opened up? As we've seen in previous posts, electric cargo-trucks will have a profound impact on one of North America's most reliable jobs: trucking. When the vehicles turn autonomous, there will be no need for humans operating the vehicles, hence no more jobs for truckers. And what is the great business opportunity for such wifi-charging lanes? Cheap transportation: no gas to buy, no human to pay. So we see here a great deal of money being spent to a) shut down the transportation industry as we know it, and b) to provide the cheap flow of goods without the injection of money into the greater part of society.

3. Autonomous vehicles: We know where this technology is heading: autonomous vehicles that are self-operating, and now self-powering. With such wifi-charging lanes, there isn't even a human needed to change up the battery or plug it into a charger--technology solves the problem itself. What is left is humans being mere passengers of vehicles, but that's where it ends. 

4. Overturning of other industries: With such electric charging lanes, what will become of the oil and gas industries? What will become of auto insurance? (We've already mentioned the shake-up in trucking). There are shifts in industries that we can't even realize yet--but this move to wifi-charging lanes will be highly disruptive. 

5. What of your non-electric car? If the government is implementing these lanes, how soon will legislations come into effect that discourage and ultimately prohibit the driving of gas-powered vehicles? 

6. Coming to a country nearest you: With the U.K. desiring to become the world's leader in this technology, the other countries of the developed world are sure to follow suit, especially given the pressures for countries to compete in innovation. This is just the beginning--and it is not an anomaly: these technologies will be implemented in all developing countries faster than we think. We need to be prepared, whether as individuals or as business owners. This technology may seem off the radar screen, but it is devastatingly disruptive.

23 Reasons Why You're Out Of Your League When Invited To Go Camping

There are some who have been camping throughout their lives; and there are others who have grown up largely in the suburbs or the city, and whose only experience of camping is a pup-tent in their friend's back-yard, or a trailer on a trailer park. For the latter, camping may not be for you. Yes, there's learning and striving and persevering at it--but it takes time. Its therefore important to know yourself: are you in the camper's camp, or the metro-camp? 

Here's how you know you're out of your league when you're invited to go camping:

1. Your experience in the outdoors reveals a yawning gap between age 12 and 41--largely trailer parks and resorts.

2. Your conception of 'roughing it up north' is a 3-star hotel in Barrie.

3. You bring a butane canister to make fire.

4. Wondering how you'll survive without Starbucks, you fret over how many Starbucks instants you must bring with you, and how the whole fire-thing will work out when making it.

5. Losing your butane canister, you wonder if cold lake water and Starbucks instants will slake your migraine.

6. Ignoring the warning to wear water shoes in the lake, you've cut your feet up beyond recognition.

7. Within your first day you suffer a fishing hook cut between your eyes--self-inflicted.

8. Taking fish off the hook is "icky."

9. Eating Yellow Perch is too fishy, and you've almost choked to death several times on the bones.

10. You'd rather just stay indoors all day and play suduko.

11. You've run out of data on your mobile phone within the first day--now you're staring down the barrel of a week without Facebook and it's making you feel totally disconnected from your self.

12. Can't swim--too many water snakes, or just gunky lake floor.

13. Being used to city lights, you head outside at dark and realize after the first few steps that it's "awfully dark" and you don't own a flashlight.

14. You feel best at night when the day's over.

15. You realize upon waking up that you're facing another day of it, asking yourself "Now what?"

16. Your 350 sq. ft. condo on Yonge and Bloor Street, with 3am garbage pick-up and incessant noise, is actually really comfortable. 

17. You rush to your vehicle and start the engine just to feel air conditioning--and it's only 23 degrees outside.

18. You feel more human in air conditioning than in the outdoor breeze.

19. Your fingers itch to touch a keyboard and mouse while dreaming of the bliss your homey office cubicle up on the 20th floor of some black monolith of corporate death brings you. 

20. You've nothing to wear, for suddenly Diesel Jeans and Abercrombie shirts don't seem to cut it while bushwhacking in the Muskokas. 

21. You didn't read the article that Obsession by Calvin Klein, and other colognes and perfumes and essential oils, attract wild cats and other beasts--not the kind of 'catch' you were expecting camping.

22. In spite of meat-glut, you've opted to scarf down Weber's hamburgers the entire time you're there to avoid said Yellow Perch, Small Mouth Bass, and other "icky fish", not to mention the chimera of shopping bliss the whole Webers Roots wear brings. 

23. Hacking awkwardly at a piece of flint with your friend's ultra-cool German hunting knife makes you feel so Jeff Probst--repeating the phrase "Fire in the form of flint" a bazillion times to the death-stares of your camping mates.

6 Reasons Why The Muskoka Chair Is The Biggest Rip-Off Of The Canadian North

The Muskoka Chair (or as more commonly called the "Adirondack Chair) is the classic furniture piece for any cottage, cabin, lakeside hut, or (sub)urban patio. 

The iconic piece was designed by Thomas Lee while he was vacationing Westport New York in the Adirondack mountains in 1903. Looking for an alternative chair, he made up the design for the "Westport Plank Chair", and contracted a carpenter named Harry Bunnell who saw huge commercial potential for this simple chair, and filed for U.S. patent, selling the chairs for the next 20 years in different colours and materials, and individually signed by him. People looking for alternatives to wicker and rod-iron chairs flocked to the Westport Plank, and still do 112 years later.

To me, the Westport Plank, or Muskoka Chair, is one of the most uncomfortable chairs and biggest ripoffs of the Canadian north. Here's why:

1. Reclined Back: When you sit in a Muskoka Chair, it's structure forces your gaze to the sky, which is usually, at least in the Summer months, flooded with piercing sunlight. If you're on a lake, it means you can't stare out at it without cranking your neck forward, thus putting pressure on your upper spine. And if you attempt to sit up in it, you have to flex and strain your ab muscles in a position even a triathlete would find strenuous. 

2. One Sightline: Another issue with the reclined back is you can't look left and right very well, which makes the Muskoka chair terrible for engaging in conversation with others, again, without cranking your next sideways. 

3. The Westport Plunk: This is what I label the overtly awkward and embarrassingly disgraceful way in which one attempts to sit down into one of these contraptions; for not only does the back recline, but also the very seat itself--the place onto which one sets down one's posterior. If you have a bevy of some sort in your hand (coffee, beer, spirit), then you have most likely spilled it; if you have an ice cream cone, you may have lost a scoop or the whole darn thing; and getting kids into them is even worse. Terrible design.

4. Who Sits in Them?: Have you ever seen anyone actually sit in a Westport Plank/Muskoka Chair? I haven't. In cottage country, the headquarters of the Muskoka Chair where they even line store roofs, not one person can be seen sitting on them. At Weber's, the infamous hamburger spot along Hwy 11 North, there are scores of them available, including one fit for the giant of Jack and the Beanstalk lore--but not one person is sitting on them, the throng of burger and ice cream feeders preferring instead the picnic tables and simple wooden benches. Even the cottages along Lake Couchiching have flocks of Muskoka chairs all like ghosts along the emerald lawns and perched empty on the lazy docks. No one sits in them; and that speaks 'bad design'.

5. Terribly Overpriced: For such poor design, low functionality, and chiropractic issues, these chairs are EXPENSIVE retailing between $300 and $400. One cottage I observed has 6 sitting out, like cup cakes along their lawn in pink and blue and yellow--those things would've cost $1200! And again, they sit empty. Why would anyone spend money on such a lousy chair? That gets to the real reason people buy them, which is actually another reason why they are one of the biggest rip offs known to the Canadian north:

6. Overly Fetishized: These chairs, as we've seen, are uncomfortable, awkward, over-priced, and under-used, yet they represent, somehow and for some reason, the great Canadian outdoors. Why? Because the chair has become a symbol rather than a practical object. A symbol of what? Somehow, through powerful marketing or otherwise, these chairs have become a desirable object whose value is more about what it says than how it actually functions. They're like glorified garden gnomes or the flamingos one floods on a loved-one's lawn during a birthday or birth of a baby; they're not unlike a stone garden Buddha or a garden fountain that no one uses, or a bird bath--that's all. 

I don't own a Muskoka chair, but have often looked at them with some desire--until I started sitting in them, and realized their status as mere symbol rather than as a practical and functional piece of furniture. 

It is often maintained that in design, form should follow function. I maintain it is proven time and again that function is not even a consideration with these chairs. Hence, if you are looking for a Muskoka chair, rather than drop four-hundred bucks, maybe settle instead for a good stone garden gnome or perhaps a facile birdbath.

Why The Tesla Model X Isn't The Guilt-Free SUV It's Set Out To Be

The Tesla Model X, the SUV version of the already released Model S, is set to go on sale this September 2015, but the delivery, at least based on the website, is set for early 2016--with a $5000.00 USD reservation payment--though Musk himself has recently claimed it will be available for delivery on September 30. 

The vehicle will seat 7 people, come with gull-wing doors that swing up--to facilitate getting in and out without damaging other vehicles, even in tight parking spots--and all the amazing features of the already stupendous Model S. Indeed, in the post-Hummer era, this vehicle can be heralded as the guilt-free SUV. But with the plausibility of a hefty price tag--$50,000.00 plus--it prices many family folk out of the market. 

Hence, in all its appeal and gadgetry--indeed, I would probably choose a Model S if I had the cash--the Model X is simply a luxury vehicle that pedantically aligns with the elitist Whole Foods-esque (or, as some call it, "Whole-paycheck") organic produce and other health-care products, and the sustainable architectural homes, all of which boasts an eco-morality that places the average Canadian family in a curmudgeon: succumb to elitist pressure and run oneself into debt under the chimerical banner of 'sustainability', or, as with other eco-luxuries, join the guilt-ridden ranks of conventional consumers who are not only considered morally reprehensible but also less healthy and safe than their whole-organic counterparts. 

The real victory will be when such vehicles become ubiquitous--the majority can afford them--and have the kinds of options that will align safety, eco-sustainability, and budget. 

However, the down side to Musk's amazing innovative spirit, as I've written about previously, is that the move toward autonomous vehicles that he and others advocate, will usher in the end of human driver autonomy, and further subjection to the tyranny of the technological--something that seems to conflict with Musks other interest, namely the threat of an artificial intelligence arms race, or the Artillect War. 

Ontario Storms Are Nothing To Scoff At--Here are 8 Ways You Can Be Prepared For The Next Wave

We're facing some crazy stormy weather across Ontario, with many areas, especially around cottage country, calling for tornados. Here are some tips to keep you prepared:

1. Weather Watch: Keep a close eye on the Weather Network and Environment Canada for continuous updates on tornados, hail, lightening, and other severe weather fronts.

2. Pick a Room: You need to find a place where you and your family, pets, guests, etc can stay during a tornado--preferably a basement, cellar, or a lower level room with the least windows and most enforcement.

3. Get a plan: Even during the day of the storm warning, go over a plan with all your family members so everyone knows what to do when/if a tornado hits.

4. Get your stuff inside: If you have valuables outside, such as bikes, windsurfers, etc., you'll want to get them indoors in case they get damaged. If you are concerned about hail damaging your luxury vehicle, find a covered place to park it.

5. Keep Eye for Tornado Warning Signs: dark,greenish clouds; wall cloud; cloud of debris; large hail; funnel cloud; roaring noise. 

6. Stay Off the Lake: If you're planning to boat, don't get too far out so you can't get back; same goes for paddle boats, windsurfers, canoes, kayaks, etc. Don't think, "I've got several hours till this thing hits." for storms are very tumultuous and difficult to predict--especially from the lake.

7. Secure Loose Articles: Trash cans, bikes, boards, plants, trees and other things can become projectiles under powerful winds. Keep yourself and others safe by securing them in your garage and shed.

8. First Aid Kit: Every home should have a first aid kit for events such as extreme storms and fire; this should also include alternative forms of energy (power-generator, kerosene heater, etc.) in the event that the power goes out. Also include things like head-lamps, plenty of gauze and bandages. 

8 Reasons You've Got To Get Back Out To Cottage Country--Now!

1. You're skin's healed up from the scourge of bug bites: You've been sitting in your office all week, and your skin shows it: paler, smoother, the scrapes, burns, and bites have healed up. Now you wonder why you miss them so much. Something's urging you to get back out there. There was something about the pain that made you feel so much more human.

2. You've plundered your favourite fast food joint--now what? You've eaten out at all your favourite city joints, and enjoyed the spoils of your favourite big-chain grocery stores--but last night, as you were laying in bed, something hit you: a craving for Weber's hamburgers like a fever! Last week you couldn't look at another Weber's burger, but now...

3. You crave Weber's in the sickest way: You lay in bed thinking about it: "The burgers were sure good--pretty cheap too.... The process is so smooth... I love the passenger trains you can sit in--oh and the ice cream place is so good... The giant Muskoka chairs are a nice touch... Mmmm, extra pickles..."

4. You've put weight back on: Sitting around your office all week, eating at your favourite fast food places, and staring at your children languishing on the couch staring at the T.V. make you wonder why you're still in town. You want to get back out on that lake, exhausting yourself on the paddle boards, paddle boats, chasing your kids around, swimming against the tide, and carrying fire wood around. 

5. Making fires in the kettle bbq in your back yard no longer cut it: Yes, you miss the primordial act of making fire that you loved doing so much out in the wild, and find your BBQ totally lacklustre. Time to get back out there and light up some wood and roast up some marshmallows with flames licking the heavens.

6. You're roasting marshmallows over your stovetop: Can't get that craving out of your system for those caramelized marshmallows that only the fire pit can give. Maybe you're firing up your charcoal BBQ to get that woodsy taste. Follow your bliss--right back up North!

7. It's taken several showers, brands of shampoo, and gobs of conditioner to get your hair back to normal: All that lake water, mosquito spray, and lack of adequate shower facilities have rendered you like a castaway on Survivor--and getting yourself back to 'normal' took longer and more than expected. But now you feel like a million bucks--almost too clean. You miss the sticky hair and stubbled legs and the smell of insect repellent rather than deodorant. And the swimming pool is all full of chemicals and hurt your eyes when you swim in it. You yearn to plunge back in that lake, and shed the facade of city life. You want to feel human again.

8. You realized more about yourself: Being up north and roughing it made you realize things about yourself you hadn't before: you enjoy windsurfing, paddling on surf boards, catching bass out the side of a paddle boat, frying fish over a fire, chopping wood and carrying water and all that good stuff that makes us human. You realize that as much as you love 'civilization', there is a different side of you that comes alive when you're out there; a more human side--a side you miss when you're in the city. You want that part of you back. It's calling you back to the great Canadian north; back to cottage country; back to Webers and Lake Simcoe or Couchiching; back to pulling big fish off your line and cooking them up over open fire; back to not showering for 5 days because, well, you've got the lake to bathe in; back to bugs, and skunks, and racoons, and the call of coyotes; back to resplendent sunrises and magnificent sunsets; back to nature and the call of the wild. 

Do it. Get your things packed, get in the car, and get back up there--

What are you waiting for?

9 Ways You Know You've Just Returned From Roughing It At The Cottage--And No It's Not All About Webers On HWY 11

You've returned from the cottage--back to civilization. Here's how you can tell you've been roughing it for the past week or two:

1. You notice you have more scrapes, bites, and cuts than you've had the entire year: this may have seemed normal in the wild, but somehow they stand out as aberrant against your formal office attire.

2. You have an immediate craving for that special pizza or hamburger joint in your city or neighbourhood: Part of roughing it up north is missing those special take-out places from home. Weber's Hamburgers on Hwy 11 can only keep you going for so long.

3. You're sick of Webers Hamburgers on Hwy 11: You bought the burgers and fries, and have taken home the bucket of patties and buns--you've even dropped a hundred and fifty bucks on the Webers Roots attire! All this adds up to something you didn't think you'd hear yourself say: "I'm sick of Webers!"

4. You've lost weight: All that paddle-boating, windsurfing, fishing, swimming, chasing your kids around with water shoes and 40+ sunscreen--and absence of said favourite city fast food joints--has taken an inch or so away from your waste. You feel like a new person--but won't be long before you're back to normal.

5. You've gained weight: Between the BBQs and too many trips to Webers and your favourite ice-cream place in town--or the one adjacent to Webers--and all the sitting around the veranda or deck or patio, has left you a few pounds heavier. No problem: hit the bike, take the dog for an extra long walk, say good-bye to Webers till next year and you're golden!

6. You want to start building fires in your home fireplace: Yes, you miss the primordial act of making fire that you loved doing so much out in the wild, and find yourself gazing at your fireplace with wanting eyes. It's ok--in only a few months that won't seem like such a crazy thing to do.

7. You're roasting marshmallows over your stovetop: Can't get that craving out of your system for those caramelized marshmallows that only the fireplace can give. Maybe you're firing up your charcoal BBQ to get that woodsy taste. Follow your bliss!

8. It's taken several showers, brands of shampoo, and gobs of conditioner to get your hair back to normal: All that lake water, mosquito spray, and lack of adequate shower facilities have rendered you like a castaway on Survivor--and getting yourself back to 'normal' took longer and more than expected. But now you feel like a million bucks--though you realize you're going to miss that bees nest of hair you had, and your beard grown out like a cave man. Somehow you felt more human--but oh well, nothing that a trip to your favourite Tai restaurant can't cure...

9. You realized more about yourself: Being up north and roughing it made you realize things about yourself you hadn't before: you enjoy windsurfing, paddling on surf boards, catching bass out the side of a paddle boat, frying fish over a fire, chopping wood and carrying water and all that good stuff that makes us human. You realize that as much as you love 'civilization', there is a different side of you that comes alive when you're out there. It's a good thing: it makes us thankful for air conditioning and good take-out--not to mention hair conditioner--but also aware of what we are capable of if those luxuries were somehow taken away. 

Stephen Hawking & Elon Musk Warn Of Artificial Intelligence Warfare And Lead Signing Of AI Arms Ban

Steven Hawking, Elon Musk, and a host of others--notably, Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple), Google DeepMind CEO, Demis Hassabis, Professor Noam Chomsky, and Google Director of Research, Peter Norvig--have signed a letter suggesting a ban on AI warfare, specifically weapons operated by autonomous AIs. The letter was presented at the International Joint Conference On Artificial Intelligence in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The letter particularly warned against countries engaging in an AI arms race, the result of which would spell the end of the human race. 

What is telling is that the signatories maintain that such technologies are years away from deployment, not decades--as the general public assume--as stated in the following excerpt from the letter itself:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has reached a point where the deployment of such systems is — practically if not legally — feasible within years, not decades, and the stakes are high: autonomous weapons have been described as the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms."

This should give us tremendous pause, and be something we give keen eyes and ears to the development of. We know that Elon Musk has maintained for some time that AI poses tremendous risk to the human race, while Steven Hawking has claimed that AI could spell the end of humankind. 

Where things get mucky is when many thought-leaders in this area push for a higher level of human consciousness and human/machine evolution, called the Singularity. The warnings thus become the platform upon which embedded bio-technologies become acceptable, designed to enhance the human brain so as to stay intellectually on par with AIs. The problem with these technologies is they will foist onto us greater forms of social control--a tenfold greater set of capacities than your iPhone, only embedded in your brain. 

So while we should get behind Musk and Hawking and the others to warn against the plausibility of advanced AI military technologies, we should be cautious about fully adopting biotechnologies that will radically call into question what it means to be human while providing no advantage over advanced AI. 

These are all part of understanding the risks we are living in. The more vigilant we are, the more prepared we are, and the better we are able to make thoughtful decisions. The world is being designed by itself; our technologies are taking on a life of their own. We must heed such warnings seriously.

7 Shocking Reasons Why NASA Is Excited About Discovering Earth 2.0

NASA is revelling in its new finding: an earth-like planet, called the Kepler 452b, in a 'habitable zone' given its range to a sun-like star, called a G-2, where the right temperatures exist for there to be water in its liquid form. There is no verification yet of whether it has oceans and continents. What makes NASA and many in the scientific world so excited is the possibility of Kepler 452b being "Earth 2.0."

In the wake of all this excitement, as people who must read the times and be aware of risk, why would there be such interest in an Earth 2.0? The following are a list of possible reasons:

1. A haven for the Extremely wealthy: a ticket to Mars via Elon Musk's side-project, SpaceX, costs $500,000.00--the price of a mid-sized home in Ontario. How much do you think it would cost to fly to Kepler 452b that's 1400 light years away? And what would the cost be to inhabit such a place? An Earth 2.0 suggests the first one failed or grew obsolete, thus the value of a new one. The question remains in whose interests and for what reasons?

2. Environmental Disaster: many are concerned about the Earth's population outgrowing its resources. If this happens, the extreme wealthy will be unable to maintain their ultra-posh lifestyles, and thus will have to begin over somewhere else. This leads into our next reason.

3. War and Anarchy: Where there are food and other resource shortages, there are, historically speaking, civil war, anarchy, and even genocide. So if Earth 1.0 slips into this scenario, then those who are in the upper echelons will have another planet to flee to for their lives and safety. 

4. Nuclear War: Political pressures are mounting, from Russia along the Ukrainian border, to nuclear deals with Iran, hostility between US and Israel, and unflagging conflict with ISIS. A nuclear attack from any of these countries and political groups could come at any time. If this happens, there will need to be a safe haven for political, and other, leaders to go. With technology what it is, it wouldn't be impossible to launch attacks from another location in space. 

5. Artilect War: this is a scenario put forth by brain scientist Hugo de Garis in which the Artificial Intelligence we are creating evolves far beyond our physical and intellectual capabilities thus giving rise to a take-over scenario. Like humans can easily capture animals, these super-advanced AI would just as easily capture us. However, human technology will evolve also, giving us the ability to put up a fight. Nevertheless, many people will be fleeing the planet.

6. Conflict with hostile alien life forms: Stephen Hawking and SETI are putting millions of dollars in efforts to locate alien life forms--extra-terrestrial beings. But what if that contact is hostile? What if relations curdle and these powerful beings take over Earth? May seem absurd; but with such smart people working on it and putting big money in research, it suddenly becomes very plausible. 

7. Because we can: The first mission to the Moon was the tipping point for human beings as those belonging to Earth. We at that point realized that the galaxies could also be our home; that we did not have to remain on terra firma. Ever since, our quest and desire for space exploration has remained unquenched. We seek Kepler 452b, and the 1030, and counting, on the list because we can--simple as that.