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Wow - thanks tecoyah - though there does seem to be more than a little controversy over the results of the experiment.
That being said, the idea that if massless particles can be accelarated to super-luminal speeds, it is only a matter of time before tons of organised matter can be made to do the same doesn't necessarily hold true. FTL travel, even the idea that information can be sent FTL allows you to break the laws of causality, allowing you to complete tasks before you initiate them.
If you were able to set up a string of processes that completed before they began, you have the beginnings of an unlimited power-source, unlimited computing power (your calculations could be completed before they were entered) and as such, the option of rebuilding the entire universe for your own amusement.
The flight > jet-planes > moon landing argument does not mean we can change the fabric of the universe. True FTL travel would change the way we operate in the universe so radically, that location, time and matter would become immaterial.
If the aliens have access to these technologies, and if they are interested in our fate, then they walk among us as gods, and will allow us to know their presence as and when it suits them.
For us yes, life in other parts of the universe is an exciting prospect - but if we found any (intelligent) life outside our solar system, it would be so far away that a simple exchange of hello's would take more than 4 years (assuming Alpha Centurai was capable of supporting life) but the estimate at the closest extra-solar system life is at a much greater distance - a mere hello might take 200-5000 years to complete.
Mounting a mission to greet such cosmic neighbours in person would take far longer using even the most outlandish technology currently in development.
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