A cosmonaut attending a futurists' convention gets shot, then flash-frozen to await a future treatment for his wounds. He wakes up in 2039, just in time to attend a conference much like the one he left, only weirder. Science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem first published this satire in Polish in 1971.

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H ayakawa from Japan presented plans for the house of the future--800 levels with maternity wards, nurseries, schools, shops, museums, zoos, theaters, skating rinks, and crematoriums. The blueprints provided for underground storage of the ashes of the dear departed, 40-channel television, intoxication chambers, sobering tanks, gymnasiums for group sex, and catacombs for nonconformist subculture communities. One rather novel idea was to have each family change its living quarters every day, moving from apartment to apartment like chessmen--say, pawns or knights. That would help alleviate boredom. In any event, this building, having a volume of 17 cubic kilometers, a foundation set in the ocean floor, and a roof that reached the stratosphere, would possess its own matrimonial computers--matchmaking on the sadomasochistic principle, for partners of opposite persuasions statistically made the most stable marriages (each finding the answer to his or her dreams)--and a round-the-clock suicide prevention center.