What are the chances we (as a species) make contact with aliens within our lifetime?

Unidirectional contact, most probably us detecting some very old signal, could happen today or in a thousand years. Not enough data to calculate chances. And there is beauty on that.

...

did you ever see the report where a ufo came down and asked a guy for water and then made him some pancakes

What is the point in making these threads on Veeky Forums? Everyone here is of the singular opinion and I stress opinion that aliens can't travel to Earth. It's like asking this question on /x/ you will get an equally completely one-sided and biased opinion from them on the subject of aliens. Best to ask this question on a general discussion board like /b/ or /r9k/

:O

>Everyone here is of the .. opinion that aliens can't travel to Earth.
The ETs are here to show us that our physics is not the be all and end all and that the Crown of Creation hypnosis is based on a lie.