It's not so much the answer to the question (profound either way), but how humanity will react.  Carl Sagan's "Contact "  was made into a movie.  Humanity, in general, is not prepared for the answer . Then again, if it is sentient, it m ight not be friendly at all and our existence will hang in the balance .  IMHO. in our life times, we will find "life" (bacteria and such) somewhere closer to home - in our solar system.  If memory serves, one of the Apollo missions traveled to the Surveyor landing site and found earth based bacteria clinging to existance on the craft.