These three stories primarily revolve around various forms of happiness, indeed, nothing less than the construction of happiness. King Genius, often plagued by melancholy and self-loathing, can only find solace in unusual tales. Therefore, he orders three storytelling machines from the great constructor Trurl to help pass the time. In "Altruizin" and "Experimenta Felicitologica," the world is to be redeemed through cybernetic means. There are essentially two directions for world improvement: the sudden, revolutionary approach and the gradual, evolutionary one. Lem describes all the ways things can go wrong in this commendable endeavor of improving the world in a fireworks display of brilliant ideas, and the nobler the intention, the more miserable the outcome.