Why the Aliens haven't called yet
In 1977 we, in a fit of suicidal hubris, sent out directions to our planet affixed to Voyager 1—complete with drawings of how plump and delicious we are.
Voyager was sent off toward interstellar space where friendly (of course) vegetarian (of course) aliens would find the probe and come to visit.
So why haven't we heard from the aliens yet?
Because 35 years later Voyager is still in our solar system.
And this, boys and girls, is why interstellar travel is not very practical. I was a mere kid when Voyager was launched. And as I move toward my golden years the thing is still in the cosmic driveway!
Star Trek: The Motion Picture takes place in something like 2300 AD. Voyager was found by a distant machine race, incorporated into a huge machine and steered back toward Earth.
Where did this machine race find Voyager? Alpha Centauri? Because I doubt the thing will have gotten all that far away by 2300.
Space is very, very large.
We knew this day would come: NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977, today still traveling away from Earth at a rate of 35,700 miles-per-hour, has entered into a new region of space at the end of the solar system, NASA announced on Monday.
“We believe this is the last leg of our journey to interstellar space,” said Voyager’s longstanding project scientist, Ed Stone, who has been in charge of the mission of the spacecraft and its identical twin Voyager 2 since their launches, in a statement published Monday by NASA. “Our best guess is it’s likely just a few months to a couple years away. The new region isn’t what we expected, but we’ve come to expect the unexpected from Voyager.”...
http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/12/nasa-voyager-1-hits-new-region-at-solar-systems-end.php?ref=fpb
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Hey, it really is just a joke, right? Right? 
In all seriousness, Voyager was just the tip of the iceberg compared to what we can do nowadays, I think.