The problem with humans and impossible problems, it is often thought, is that they have too much imagination and little regard for the impossible.
So it was with the impossibility drive, so named because it was theoretically impossible. Like a moth to a flame, you couldn't have given it a more tempting name for a human if you tried.
"Oh, working on that are they?" The old researcher's voice was filled with disdain. "Well you can explain to a human that it's impossible, but you can't stop them from trying!"
"But what if they succeed?" said the younger, less cynical, research assistant, who had first been told about the experiment.
"You don't seem to fully grasp the meaning of the word, impossible. It has been extensively proven, through rigorous models, that nothing like it can be done. Would you doubt our fundamental basis?"
"Of course not!" But deep down, he had doubts.
The younger research assistant rushed into his senior's office. "Have you heard? They actually built one."
"Yes? I thought I explained this to you earlier. They can't stop themselves, it's something in the name I believe."
"But to actually build one, it was huge!"
"Yes, yes it was. Blew up on first try, if I remember the article correctly." With a sad sigh he continued. "Humans, so wasteful. The resources spent on it could have powered our, more theoretical, lab for a hundred years. Well, well, hard to blame them for trying. Although we certainly should."
The assistant wasn't so sure about this. Although it had been a tremendous waste of resources. He left the office feeling a bit down. Now that it had blown up in their faces, it was unlikely that the humans would continue.
"It seems the humans did something good this time after all." This time it was the senior who brought the news to his assistant.
"Really? Wasn't it just a big waste, as you said?" 'Told you so':s were a rarity for the assistant, and he was damned if he was going to let one slip by.
"Of course, but they managed to get some useful data out of it at least." He said with a tone of voice that suggested that this was of course entirely accidental. "With this, the impossibility drive seems to be theoretically possible."
"So, you think they will build more of them?"
"I would hope not! The parameters are too wide. You would need to build hundreds of them to have a chance. No, now it's our time to shine!"
The assistant wasn't to sure about this. They had, after all, built the first one at far more adverse odds.
The researcher sat with the latest article about the human experiment in his hands, intensely reading it over and over. It wasn't that it was hard to read, he just couldn't believe it. Of course he had been right, at least a hundred of them needed to be built to have a chance. It had taken them thousands.
The sheer scale of it was hard to believe. Resources expended could have powered his lab for... eternity, or close to it. Worst of all, he now had a uppity research assistant whom he would never hear the end of it from.
"Madness, pure madness."