Extra-universal contact was sudden when it finally arrived, and completely unexpected at that. Some physicists in a basement at Almaty typed words into their computer and were surprised to discover the computer typing back, in a manner that suggested it had been expecting them to talk to it for quite some time. Quickly it transpired that the computer wasn't sentient -don't be ridiculous, it scoffed at the suggestion- but was the first machine in this universe to be connected to any other, linked into its internet like a needle in a whale. Furthermore, because the universe they had made contact with was perfectly aware of what had happened, it followed that they were in turn connected to other universes who had learned the secret of communication, and that the scientists had in fact made contact not just with another world but more worlds than anyone could imagine. It was as though they had discovered that the earth was a mere house in a village, and the village had found a town that knew a city, from which each day rockets set off to the stars.
The discovery of such wonder, however, was inevitably despair. For within one day the planet had learned everything that could be learned, found the greatest works of art that could be conceived and realised that theirs was a long way from the best of all possible worlds. People would log into the Greater Internet to find equivalents of themselves in other universes, and they would always see one more cultured, more wise, or more content than they themselves had become. Worse, they could look for places where people just like them had made one slightly different decision; and would find that often the different decision was the right one, and that everything they had told themselves to the contrary was a lie. The world slowly slid towards ennui and misery, only stopped by the knowledge that other worlds had done so in far more impressive ways.
When all contact with the other worlds was finally severed the planet had one thought to keep them sane: if they had severed all communication with the people of the universes, perhaps so to did the planets that grew to be the most strong, and who obtained insights beyond even the ones discovered by quintillions of people working together. In their hearts they knew that this wasn't true, and that nobody could believe human achievement was limitless when they themselves had seen the boundries- but they went on thinking it anyway, comforted by the illusion, desperate for the chance to feel great again.
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