The thing you have to understand, is that the notion that “higher education” is immensely valuable, is essentially a twentieth century delusion. Universities, largely in the modern sense, have been around for a thousand years, and, they really were never taken particularly seriously before the twentieth century. They were considered something that mainly wealthy young people could do to pass their time for a few years, till they found something to do. Occasionally, universities provided the opportunity for young people to establish relationships that might benefit them later in life.

In the twentieth century, as the result of relatively rapid scientific and technological progress in the preceding few centuries — for reasons we still don’t entirely understand — universities “seized the day”, and claimed direct credit for all of human progress. So, they claimed that, the more university degrees you had, the smarter you were, and the more important scientific and technological progress you would make! And, they got enormous government funding, and private funding too, on the basis of this delusion and fabrication.

In fact, true scientific and technological progress is entirely unpredictable, and comes, when it comes at all, usually from gifted amateurs, businessmen, and the military. There is no “scientific method” at all. None. The “scientific method” is entirely a myth, used to rationalize and justify whatever it is that scientists happen to feel like doing.

In terms of FTL travel, you have to understand that Einstein provided a mathematical band-aid to wave away the fact that light travels as a waveform in a vacuum. You need a medium to create a wave-form. Supposedly, there is nothing in a vacuum.

Now, what this proves, is that there’s a lot going on in a vacuum that physicists had no clue about. But, that would involve admitting ignorance, something that would undermine the credibility of physicists. They don’t want to do that. So, Einstein told a complex mathematical lie, that saved them from that. Goody for Einstein! Greatest scientist in history!

In fact, if we actually could get to the speed of light, nothing whatsoever would happen, other than that we wouldn’t be able to see light anymore.