A Random Thought on Aliens

Ahh .. perhaps a non-controversial topic!

You refer to “the original” .. but the copying of the essence of a being into an AI isn't what the “Singularity” is about. It's about the possibility of AI and what might happen as the pace of technological advances then applies to advances in AI (presumably leading to something far beyond human intelligence). That is, it isn't about extending a flesh-based species into a new realm. It's about the emergence of a new type of individual.

Though the idea of making a machine-based copy of a human's intelligence (or more interestingly of the entire essence of a human) is quite an interesting subject (which has been dealt with extensively in Science Fiction), it's really a different idea.

If one believes that either thing is possible, then it is reasonable to expect that this is the sort of visitor we are most likely to encounter first. Indeed, if we are visited first by flesh-based creatures, it might tell us something about the nature or likelihood of machine-based intelligence.

It'll certainly be interesting for humanity if and when we make first contact. Who knows. It might be us venturing outward .. there's no way to know if first contact will occur here on Earth or when it might happen. I like your prediction, and if true AI is possible, then I think you're absolutely right that it's quite likely that first contact will be with an AI. So, if first contact is with flesh, then I'd take that as telling us something about whether true AI is possible.

I think this assumes a lot. The first being that if aliens first contact us they will actually have superior technology, or that they will even value technology the way we do.
I once saw a comic where a boy is listening to two aliens on a foreign moon discuss highly technical aspect of quantum physics. He feels dumb listening to their conversation until one notices a rope has broke and remarks that they need to replace it. Without thinking the boy grabs the two rope pieces and ties them together with a knot. The aliens are simply amazed at the genius of the human mind.
We may meet aliens who have advanced abilities of traveling through large pieces of space in little time, but there's no reason that their other technologies will have advanced in the ways that ours has.
Our bodies have been built to meet the needs of our surroundings. Our technology has allowed us to meet additional demands of our bodies and surroundings. A different life form that has taken a completely different path to reach intelligence, and who may have the ability to build things to meet their own demands is highly unlikely to looks, act or feel anything like what we are familiar with here.