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ost_uid0]Hm, actually, somebody (Maybe Shatner? Don't remember it too clearly) started the theory that this FC-corrected timeline is actually the beginning of the Mirror Universe. That is, now that the humans have seen that there's forces in the universe bent on their destruction, they become more paranoid, and begin to wage war in a frantic attempt to become powerful enough to crush any perceived threat.
This would handwave a lot of technical inconsistencies - phase cannons and photon(ic) torpedoes could be the result of the profound realisation amongst mankind in the Mirror Universe that they need to up their firepower, pronto, and have thus spent more time researching weaponry. If, on the other hand, in the "normal" universe, exploration remained as main goal, the overall lower tech level could explain why the Earth-Romulan War was fought with nuclear weaponry - Earth Starfleet simply wasn't equipped with anything more advanced because research had been funneled into other areas - better sensors, for example, would make sense. (Come to think of it, Enterprise's sensors and computers aren't so hot in comparison to Vulcan tech, if we can believe T'Pol.)
It also makes the future battle in Azati Prime a bit more sensible. Why would the Federation use outdated vessels like the Nova or the Prometheus? Because it's relatively new, and has received technical help from the 'normal' universe! Remember the Mirror Defiant? The Mirror Universe Human Rebellion could have received further technical info, but you require a lot of support logistics to build big ships. My idea is thus that the Mirror Federation is relatively young, and was still struggling to catch up development-wise to the 'normal' universe when the great stand at Proxion happened. They needed warships, fast, and due to the decrepit state of their industry (plus lacking experience with the more advanced technologies - maintaining them requires a deeper understanding, and know-how doesn't grow on trees) chose to build ships with technology they had themselves understood and could support - and the best bet was a resource-light, but high-tech, high-firepower ship like the Prometheus. The Nova was there for electronic warfare - to have a chance against the sphere builders, the fleet required a fast anti-cloak, anti-shield ECM ship, again light on materials - presto, Nova. Also, as already said, Mirror Universe sensors don't seem so hot, and perhaps the operation of 'normal' sensors was so ill-understood that it was easier to build one ship with original, good sensors rather than try to reverse-engineer them to install them on a warship. (Insert your favourite Dauntless rationalisation here.)
In that sense, we can think of the battle at Proxion as the Earth-Romulan War of the Mirror Universe - a desperate struggle against superior odds that unites many species into an eventually succeeding Federation. After all, we are not told how old the Federation is there - it sounds like a war alliance, and could be *very* new - which again explains the rag-tag fleet syndrome. Heck, if you want to be pedantic, you could say the Enterprise-J itself is, due to it's heavy Cardassian influence, not a Federation ship per se (as in, not built on a specifically Federation shipyard) - it could be Cardassia's contribution to the war effort, built in the image of human ships, but with Cardassian technology. (Which jibes with how powerful the Cardassians are in the Mirror Universe.)
On the other hand, if we think that the 'normal' universe is the one unaffected by FC, we can simply ignore Regeneration and FC there and have Starfleet open a "Borg File" after hearing about them from the El-Aurians - this doesn't affect Scooter's theory in the slightest, since it only leans on Starfleet gaining knowledge of the Borg before "Q Who?", which was accomplished in Generations.
*phew* So, that's my little crackpot theory. Feel free to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.
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