Short Story: Space probe (Voyager?) discovered by aliens?

I read this story a few years ago in an anthology, but I'm sure it was written in the 70s or 80s. It was only a few pages long and explored a number of scenarios that could occur if aliens were to discover one of our probes.

I'm certain there were more, but these are the scenarios I remember:

The probe is discovered by a race of sentient machines who embark on an epic journey to free what they see as enslaved machines from their organic oppressors

The probe is discovered by a being far more evolved than our species. After thousands or millions of years of studying the probe, the alien determines it to be a message of love. However, its reply is rendered meaningless by the amount of time that has passed.

The probe is rediscovered by humanity in the far future

I've been searching for this story for a couple of days, but to no avail.

Answer

Finally found it again. The story is "Message from Earth" by Ian Stewart. It may very well have been inspired by "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" though.

Comments

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