Antimatter Breakthrough Could Lead to Starships, Says Scientist

Uh, not so fast there buddy.

"Researchers created 38 atoms of antihydrogen – more than ever has been produced at one time before and were able to keep the atoms stable enough to last one tenth of a second before they annihilated themselves."

I suppose that could lead to Starships, in the same way that amoebas could lead to Homo Sapiens - and in similar timeframes.

It's likely the Singularity will occur long before we can build antimatter engines. A superintelligent AI could speed things up enormously and give us Starships much sooner than we think, provided it wanted to. Perhaps it would build humanity Starships to give us something to do and keep us out of its hair ("You kids go outside and play"). Equally likely it might decide to withhold such technology to prevent our madness from spreading ("You're grounded Mister"). Or if it's not "friendly", just kill us.