Does science fiction have it wrong? If it was possible to go faster than light speed then in a universe of infinite possibility/probabilty; shouldn't something, somewhere, have invented it already? And if so, wouldn't they have travelled far and wide across the universe(s) by now?

Perhaps they have done so and have already visited earth. Why didn't they stop to say hi? Probably because they had enough sense to avoid a place that is the scene of many stupid ideas.