system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[General Sci-Fi] My Earth has just barely lucked-out of facing an Alien invasion. How can we prepare ourselves to face this kind of event in the future?

I'm a member of the **C**ouncil for a **C**ompetitive **E**arth, or **CCE** for short. Our purpose is to figure out how to best adapt existing Earth technology and political structures to the new heliopolitical situation we find ourselves in.

About 2 months ago, we made first contact with an alien species, and only narrowly-avoided becoming a conquered people through what I can only describe as a series of contrived challenges and coincidences that our would-be invaders were obligated to follow. They had selected one random human to serve as our planet's champion, and, despite the challenges being blatantly unfair, said human managed to *win*, causing the invasion to be called-off. 

Since then, our status as some kind of "nature preserve" has been rescinded, and we've been seeing steadily increasing extraterrestrial activity. Relations are cold but cordial at the moment, but it's become blatantly obvious that we are *severely* outclassed on the galactic scene. We likely only have a decade or less before someone moves on us again, and the next time we probably won't be so lucky.

We've been attempting to purchase alien technology to reverse-engineer it, but we've encountered a problem: our currency and resources are practically worthless on the galactic market. I've heard some of our contacts joke that we'd be lucky to be able to afford an interplanetary *taxi fare* even if we sold all the oil in the world. 

We do have one strategic advantage: One of the would-be-invaders has aparrently settled down with the human that defeated her in the contest, which is probably why none of the other local empires have made a move on us yet. Stil, we haven't had much luck persuading her government to give us anything but the bare minimum when it comes to assistance.

What are the **CCE**'s options here? We're not looking to become a great power or anything like that, we'd just like to be able to *defend* ourselves if the need arises. Is there anything we can do to dissuade any future would-be-invaders? We just want to preserve an independent Earth into the future.
gpt
There is a very narrow window between aliens not having left their planet yet and being sufficiently advanced. Look at where we got in a few millennia. The universe is billions of years old. You really can't prepare yourself, beyond making sure the transition to being sufficiently advanced goes as quickly as possible.