Now... back on target...
The discussion of "real warp drive" comes up about once, every year. Usually from the same group of "scientists" (and usually at the time when they're trying get funding for their academic field of study at their respective university departments).
The world is full of scientists... both applied scientists (a category which includes everything from mechanical engineers to biochemists to geologists and a million other "real world application of science" jobs) and "pure research" scientists (usually working through public-funding at universities, though some are funded and maintained by private businesses or directly by governments). And an inordinate number of those who go into this field are huge geeks, and got into it because they wanted to do "really cool stuff." Most can quote episodes of Star Trek by memory. Trust me on that!
Very few things get the imagination going more, for the taxpayer who'll be asked to fund these programs, then telling them we'll be flying around on the Enterprise if only we fund their research team for another year!
The reality is, these "warp drive theories" are interesting, but if you read them in detail, you'll see that there are issues (usually involving the existence of purely-hypothetical materials like "dark matter" and "dark energy" and so forth, or requiring INFINITE (or nearly so) energy supplies... ie, the math may seem to work, but the practical application of the theories are pretty much impossible.
Don't get me wrong... I love seeing this sort of theoretical, mathematical work being done, and don't mind paying for it (as long as it's a reasonable cost). But I've seen this, at the same time, every year, for over a decade now. It's sort of like Christmas at this point... you can look forward to it every year!
