[michaelmrose]

There is pretty good reason to suppose faster than light travel is impossible. Aside from our current understanding of physics there is also the question of where all the aliens are.

If FTL is possible one could see even one intelligent species possessed of such technology spreading over the galaxy over thousands of years. It would also seem decidedly odd to suppose that if faster than light is possible only we are smart enough to invent it.

Removing faster than light travel doesn't remove the question of where are all the aliens but it sure does make it easier to swallow.

[pdimitar]

All true.

(My opinion on where are all the aliens is that collectively speaking, we're little more than ordinary jungle beasts with baseball caps (quote by George Carlin) and we're monitored and evaluated on when is a good time for a first contact. Let's just say we're easily at least a millennia away from that point.)

My point in my parent comment was that the overall schema of assertions like "breakthroughs are incoming" and "we just need to do X" are overly optimistic. So I gave an exaggerated example to demonstrate that point.