I remember having a discussion at university with one of my professors and some of my classmates about the Voyager space probes. I found the idea to be really interesting but also sort of bittersweet, for many of the reasons that you discuss here. There's something a little bit eerie about this record of our humanity, the things we value and hold dear as humans, floating around out in the void of space - and, as you point out, if it ever reaches another life form, we'll probably be long gone.