I don't know if you guys ever had a chance to hear the stories someone with severe mental illness can create.
I had and they seem a lot with what this gentleman is saying.
It's a blend of real and fantastic facts. They give those things names we already now. Think about it: why would a galactic spanning organisation be called "Galactic Federation"?
Why not another name?
I mean, if I were trying to translate the idea of a limited liability corporation into non-English, I'd probably come up with a phrasing that ended up being very similar (if not the same) to whatever they use in Dutch or Japanese or Chinese etc. If you had a multi-star-system government that wasn't an empire, it doesn't seem a stretch that you'd call it something similar to a 'federation'.
Think about it: why would a galactic spanning
organisation be called "Galactic Federation"?
Imagine you were in charge of such a galaxy-spanning organization, encompassing multiple worlds, species, and cultures. Needless to say, communication in general and naming things in particular would be quite the challenge.
Literal names and clarity are probably the primary things you want to really value there.
Particularly if you're in charge of saying "hello" to a new species (humans, in this case) who are likely to find the experience a bit overwhelming. There's more than enough new information for them to absorb, right? Keep things as simple as possible.
Yeah, "Galactic Federation" sounds about right.
Or Very Massive Ensemble of Genetic Transport Devices.
Or anything totally new, which could gives us a notion of a galactic point of view, non-human point of view, outside of earthly concepts.
But anyways, I want to believe!
We called the earth beneath our feet "Earth". Our moon "Moon", our star ("our sun" in common language) "Sun". Our military has a force that deals with flying in the air and we called it "Air Force". Our first space force is called "Space Force". Historically, one of the biggest companies that dealt with the east indian area was called "East India Company" despite being British.
So, I'd answer back with "why not"?
Our residence and office of the leader of our country is The White House.
"Air Force" only sounds more normal than "Space Force" because most of us weren't around when it was the "US Army Air Corp".
Admittedly they could've called it something slightly cooler based off other names, like the US Cyber Command.
uuuurrrrloooop gleeeick flurrrumpa
The moment of first contact with a race of nuclear-armed savages is uh, pretty fraught, I'd imagine.
If I was in charge of that alien delegation, you best believe I'd have a well-rehearsed slide deck translated into the humans' native dialect(s)!
Sincerely, glrorpoepopo pvivinsinoborpo from gleebinimus alpha
Are the aliens using PowerPoint, now? Oh goodness, not sure I welcome our new galactic overlords.