Scientists Announce a Physical Warp Drive Is Now Possible. Seriously.

[qazplm135]

13. first,

someone could already be doing it. Lots of someone's could.

Second, we have no idea how that would look, or what, if any, signs it would give off at long distances that we could look at and say, yep that's definitely a warp drive and not just high energy particles from some other source (or whatever it is that a warp drive might give off--even assuming those particles would even reach us).

Third, being inside a warp bubble would, I would think, pretty much make you impervious to any outside dangers. You might be the cause of danger turning on and shutting down your drive with the build up and release of energy, but you literally have a force field around your ship protecting you.

Fourth, yeah, no idea if we are alone, or one in a series of lonely civilizations, or one of the first civilizations, or isolated under some version of the prime directive, or simply in a backwater part of the galaxy no one ever bothers to visit. That's a question with many possible answers.