I think 'Standard' (aka, English) was mentioned to be a fairly 'simple' language quite a number of times by various species who encountered Humans (either early on, or in the 24th century).
Its possible some species might have issues with learning standard due to how they originally learned to communicate, and as such, I would imagine that those species would rely on UT's... but otherwise, the UFP would probably encourage learning 'Standard' (whichever it was originally set out to be as agreed upon by the founding members) as a 'common language' for everyone in UFP (but it wouldn't really be forced).
Learning languages is hard mainly because people go through the learning process after they have fully matured - but its not impossible.
As children, its a lot easier to learn languages... however, even Human adults can learn to speak and write another language fluently in a year for social purposes.
For academic purposes, they'd need about 5-7 years
I would imagine that within UFP, and the fact its learning curriculuum is likely individualised (aka, adapted to the individual - but in a gamified manner), it would probably structure the learning curve to be interesting and engaging (aka, it wouldn't really feel like studying, but it would be integrated in everyday activities and wouldn't feel like a chore - which of course would make things a lot easier - think of it like playing a game you find very engaging, but it also teaches you things while you're playing it).
Remember that holographic simulations DO contain a lot of data. A lot of which would include environmental factors, etc.
It would be necessary for accurately simulating Solum's environment.
Even I have stray thoughts of remembering stuff that seems vague, but manage to connect it.
Gwyn probably had some time at SF HQ to re-analyse the information before discussing things with Dal, so she found Solum's location in the time she was there - and SF would have granted her access to their own stellar cartography to try and pinpoint its location.
Also, we don't know if she took the Solum's holoprogram from the Protostar before they destroyed it.
I would imagine this would be something she kept on her person as it was important to her.
Oh I'm not denying the premise that the Vau'N'A'Kat may have better memory and visual processing abilities than your average human, all I'm saying is, we shouldn't really discount the fact that Gwyn underwent intense studying in her 17 years on Tars Lamora in wide variety of subjects.
To me, she's a generalist. That's why she's able to connect the dots... even humans who are generalists tend to problem solve a lot better than specialists and make better advancements because they can connect information/data from one field with another.
Also, remember Hoshi Sato?
Or Uhura?
These two humans are prime examples of having uncanny ability to learn new languages quickly.
We don't know if this is an abnormality in the human genome, but it probably has more to do with evironmental stimulus they were exposed to as children... prompting them into the direction towards analysing and learning languages.
Both Ascencia and Diviner's perceptions of UFP were coloured by their rage, so I wouldn't think they would be the most objective individuals regarding their claims on who is more 'superior'.
I mean, the Vau'N'A'Kat DID end up having a civil war because half of their population was not ready to accept the idea they weren't alone in the universe - and this coming from a species which already had FTL capabilities and starships at the point First Contact happened.
That the Vau'N'A'Kat hadn't even contemplated about the possibility of other sentient species seems a bit ludicruous (which in itself would provide them with 'some' ability to cope with the idea).
But, the division was predominantly between the population of Solum that wanted to join UFP, and the population that wanted to remain isolated (or it evolved into that).
Humans and Vulcans may have had their own versions of civil wars before joining the galactic community, but neither had an existential crisis that nearly destroyed them over the premise of sentient life in the galaxy and universe at large.
Telepathy and Telekinesis can certainly be advantageous to working on various tasks, but as we saw, they aren't always optimal... nor do they necessarily always work.
When Gwyn was fighting the Borg, she was very much overwhelmed by them... and she couldn't for example use her telepathic abilities to destroy their body armor (eh, Kes would have had much more success there as she could actually manipulate any type of matter with her Telekinetic abilities - the Vau'N'A'Kat telekinetic abilty seems to extend to the use of specific matter (which they made) that forms their 'heirlooms' - so, limited it seems.
As for protomatter... was Gwyn's heirloom described as Protomatter? Or was it just a version of programmable matter (aka, smart materials which resonate with Vau'N'A'Kat telepathic centres)?
Plus, as far as their AI capabilities go... remember that UFP posesses extraordinary computer technology too, but for some reason, it just doesn't use them to the fullest extent (courtesy of the writers for the most part to try and not make things 'too easy' - but in that case, just MAKE a story that works with the enhanced security features, etc.).
And UFP is usually not in the business of weaponizing their technology for deadly purposes - but we have seen they can certainly do so if the motivation/need is there.
Also, UFP has some 'limits' in regards to how far they will take certain technology (regulated for the most part).
For example, genetic engineering cannot be used to ENHANCE a person, but it seems the ban on genetic engineering was relaxed over time in a sense that it CAN be used for the purpose of fixing some congetinal issues in utero - such as curvature of the spine (at least as of 2377/2378), and possibly blindness (the ban may not have been relaxed on this premise early enough for La Forge to benefit from it - although, I do recall that Pulaski mentioned to him she could in effect give him real human eyes by implementing cellular regeneration techniques - which is something UFP CAN do, but again, doesn't really implement.
They could also use same techniques to reverse ageing (not to mention the transporter could be used for that too), but again, they don't do this (or they do, but we just hadn't seen humans who opted to live beyond 150 odd years... which is odd because a LOT of them would probably enjoy the idea of living extremely long lives).
Even when the synth ban was in place for about 17 years (ST: Pic S1), the Daystrom Institute was not allowed to make any synthetics, however, they were allowed to experiment with aspects of synth technology to enhance computer and robotic systems further.
Without making actual synths, you'd be limited yes, but given how advanced and accurate UFP holographic simulations are, you can make a reasonable extrapolation from those (at least until the ban is lifted).
So, whether or not the UFP is primitive (on average) to the Vau'N'A'Kat... eh, both sides excell in some areas and probably have weaknesses in others.
One thing I didn't understand is not using the positronic components to affect cures for various diseases (as it was noted that Riker's and Troi's son died effectively because of the ban).
Medical treatments should superceed the ban, and they wouldn't be used to created actual synths anyway. Oh well.
Remember that the Vau'N'A'Kat from about 52 years into the future captured the Protostar and had it in their possession for over 72 days.
Given that they were already advanced space faring culture, it stands to reason they'd be able to get deeply familiar with SF computer systems and circumvent most security obstacles SF put into place (and program their Living Construct accordingly).
Also, not much superiority present in the fact of how the Construct operated. It needed actual Vau'N'A'Kat to use and it had to maintain the signal/connection to the SF ships it was controlling. Wouldn't it be easier to just set it to make copies of small amounts of corrupted code and just transmit that into SF's computers which would self-replicate exponentially and corrupt their systems, therefore a continuous signal wouldn't be required? Plus, just automatically open a comms signal to another SF ship/station and transmit the corrupted program directly as opposed to luring ships into a singular location.
There are 'holes' in Vindicator's statements of superiority over UFP and SF. And now their only remaining Living Construct ended up destroyed to boot so they wouldn't be able to destroy SF as they hoped.
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