Before the project to actually build space flight capability (or nuclear explosives or computers or any other friggin' hard thing) was started, engineers had to have 'yes' to every "is x possible" question. If they had a 'dunno', they had to figure it out, experimentally or/and theoretically. If something was a 'no' - there was no point in trying.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feasibility_study

Through his cerebrations Eliezer appears to have attracted the Cream of the Singularitarian Crop here, who are now Collectively Disappointed.