Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think you'd have to assume that's a dystopian scenario. The Copernican Revolution and associated existential crises -- that we're not in a privileged location at the center of the universe -- changed human culture mostly for the good.
My question was "what if we realize that life isn't special?" -- not "what if we realize that humans aren't special?". The fact that three commenters misinterpreted the former for the latter is only a proof of our anthropic bias. We are not at all post-Copernican, strictly speaking. We value living things like we never did before. You occasionally hear discussion about granting rights to non-human animals: dolphins,…
What is the alternative? That we actually are special snowflakes? I think that is the more terrifying eventuality - but of course, this is a decision anyone participating in the question has to make: are we special or are we not-special, and if either is true, what difference does it make? Answer: it really doesn't make any difference. If we discover life on Mars or not, we still haven't taken the time nor made the effort to talk to the dolphins and ask them what they think about it ..