Preview of The Widget, the Wadget, and Boff Summary:

The premise of The Widget, the Wadget, and Boff is that all sentient species have a trait called Synapse Beta sub Sixteen, which in moments of extreme crisis allows members of these thinking species to step outside of time and space and observe their situations, allowing them to either take appropriate action to save themselves or to act for the greater good by saving others. Without this trait a species is doomed to extinction. Sturgeon uses this idea to explore the internal lives of his characters; his human characters are representative of hopes and ambitions common to many people, from wanting to fit in to being a movie star, from wanting to satisfy oneself to wanting to satisfy others.

The disorienting stress of the experiment that they undergo and the revelations brought on by the activation of their Synapse Beta sub Sixteens reveal the essential emptiness of some...