Through three tales of impossible machines with abilities to manipulate the physical world, travel through time and space, and bestow telepathy onto an entire community, candidates of an engineering exam in the far future are asked to ponder fantastical implications of technology.

All his life, a man creates machines to compensate for his idiocy, but, over time, the machines he creates lose respect for him and treat him poorly, causing him to lose all hope. A single machine opens his eyes to the idiocy of others, changing his perspective and giving him back hope and joy.

Humanity has long been gone, and the logical machine known as Frost learns about humanity and begins to grow humans with robot consciousnesses in labs.

In a futuristic society, humans are bred and raised to be frozen as sculptures and displayed at art museums — until one attendee decides to set them free.

An amateur painter attends his first art show, hoping to sell some of his work. He soon understands, however, that the path to success in art is not nearly as simple as he once perceived it to be.

In a world where mushrooms feed on creativity, an under-appreciated artist undergoes a risky operation to replace his dying inner voice. But when the first transplant fails, he must find another donor, or risk being banished from society forever.

While in India on a ritzy business trip, a museum curator has been instructed to find art that leaves an impression on him. His search leads him to a terrifying place where acts of violence are considered "art."

Aliens visit Earth in the near future to select a single work of art to represent all of humanity, but the artwork they choose shocks the world.

A catalog of the tools different alien species use to read and write, leading to fundamental questions about what it means to make patterns of knowledge against the noise of the universe.

When faced with cultural appropriation and police brutality, two Black women in different generations of the same family combine their ability to perform hoodoo with modern technology to remedy these abuses.