as a human, it's hard not to feel a little bit of compassion for most things - even if they are inanimate objects or bits of technology. like when you see a tree really taking a beating in a storm, and there's a part of you that thinks, "poor old bastard". voyager 1 and voyager 2 were launched over thirty years ago. their jobs were to just head away from earth and relay back information. they take photos, measure solar wind, and other such menial tasks. they are over 10 million miles away at this point, and when their task is over - they'll just be shut down and left to float out into space until the end of time. if that were a person, we'd feel kind of bad. "good news, guys. i found the end of the sun's wind. no more showing up at this point." "great. thanks for all your effort." "when can i come home? ...hello?" then just infinite floating. voyager must be pretty lonely. maybe that's why we sent two. i hope they can at least play some card games with each other.