If we discovered alien life. Hypothetical Discussion. Would it change the world?

Just wanted to know what you think? I am basing this on the assumption that they are similar to humans in technology and society. Let's just assume we could not physically reach them yet, and vice versa. Let's assume they are also aware of us, but we have yet to interact.

Would it change our world as we know it? Better or worse?

 

If we discovered alien life...
Let's see, first, we would probably panic. I believe it'd change for the worst.
We would definitely panic at first, if it was released to the general public first, there would be mass hysteria and mobbing, I believe.
If it was only for the government's eyes, I believe we may handle it differently. The government may just try to have contact with them via various satellites and such.
Alternately, if released to the public, we would just go "Oh, that's cool. As long as they don't get here, it's pretty cool." and continue with our normal lives.

 

First: More money would go into aerospace.
Second: Religions would start.
Third: There would be a race to reach them first.

Also, it depends on how we'd discover them. If it was the other way around (we found something from them)
And another one, we'd probably get ready for war and to take over their planet, because that's how humans work.

 

Will it be historical that we make first contact with a species of intelligence from another planet?
Of course it would be important and historical.
Like in the past when we first made contact with another tribe, or another foreign country for the first time.

I would compare the experience to meeting an alien species to meeting a foriegn people for the first time. There would be speculation and mismunderstanding about one another, it would be tense never knowing much about the other's cutlure, customs, society and so on.

The best result would be for us to try and understand each other. We should learn from each other's acquirement of technology, history of its people and other things about ourselves.

It would easily take some decades for anything positive or revolutionary to happen but over time we will likely assimilate if we are like each other, or we may avoid each other as mch as possible if we aren't that comparable.