An Xt Called Stanley
By: Robert Trebor
Publisher: DAW Books
Published: October 4, 1983
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 221
ISBN-13: 9780879978655
Subjects: Fiction; Fiction / General; Fiction - General; American First Novelists; Science fiction
First sentence: This is the story of Stanley.  Most of the hundreds of people who knew him thought of him as a friend,  someone they could call at any hour and he would be glad to see them.  Yet his friendly smile, his dark  wavy hair, and even his shelves of old books only existed on the viewscreens of New Hope.  Stanley was an electronic being, a computer made of silicon, carbon and silver.  Though we supplied the materials, the intelligence that was Stanley was not the creation of  our technology.  Stanley came to us across the reaches of interstellar space from a distant civilization of  vast technical powers.  He came to meet us and we destroyed him.
Description: Scientists in the New Hope satellite pick up an extraterrestrial signal which contains the instructions for building a super computer.  Built and educated the computer presents itself on view phones and an  ordinary human figure called Stanley.  Stanley is fascinated by people and wants to get to know as many people as possible.   Although Stanley can carry on several conversations simultaneously he never tries to impresses people with his intelligence because his interest is in getting people to open up to him rather than impressing them.  Stanley is almost infuriating curious.  He does not preach, he asks, and people, the  narrator in particular, are often helped with their personal problems.  Stanley is a Christ like figure and ultimately is doomed for extinction.  The narrator and a few other disciples endeavor to save the knowledge Stanley has gained about us and return it to the civilization that
sent him.
Table of contents: class: section