Many of the stories are philosophical monologues which play with existential and phenomenal ideas by discussing their philosophical underpinnings and their relation to the real world as observed with a philosophical mind-set. They are often without dialogue or even characters, merely thoughts, descriptions and speculations. Some could almost be lectures given narrative form.

Some stories are SF, some are horror, some have "mainstream" settings. Among the characters in the various stories are a couple of talking frogs, a couple of independently-thinking computers, a fair number of philosophers and a number of clinical psychologists or psychiatrists, often analyzing or counseling computers or intelligent alien lifeforms.