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"Poised between intransigent scepticism and uncritical credulity, it [science fiction] is par excellence the literature of the open mind."
- John Brunner

Self-Assembling Robots  
  Robots with the capacity to assemble themselves from components, and then switch themselves on.  

This is a relatively early, explicit reference to this idea in sf.

The Sheem Robots were modeled after living animals of various worlds, and the Spider is considered to have been the most perfect of them all. This is the last specimen still in existence. You asked whether I had assembled it recently... Yes, I have. It's a most simple process...

The captain swung the gun up, pointed it at Yango's chest.

"What are you hiding?" he asked.

"Why, the activating mechanism," Yango frowned puzzledly. "I understood you wished to see it assembled. You see, the Sheen Robots assemble themselves when the signal to to it is registered by them."

Technovelgy from The Witches of Karres, by James Schmitz.
Published by Not known in 1966
Additional resources -

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Witches of Karres
  More Ideas and Technology by James Schmitz
  Tech news articles related to The Witches of Karres
  Tech news articles related to works by James Schmitz

Self-Assembling Robots-related news articles:
  - CkBot Modular Robot Self-Assembles, Picks Gait
  - Self-Assembling Robot Swarm
  - Robot Lamp Assembles Itself (Via 3D Printer)

Articles related to Robotics
Chaffeur Robot Musashi Will Drive Your Regular Car
Shanghai Guidelines For Humanoid Robots
Desktop TARS Robot From Interstellar
Robots Can Now Have Smiling Faces With Human Skin

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Science Fiction in the News

Chaffeur Robot Musashi Will Drive Your Regular Car
'What would you do,' Eric asked the robot cabdriver, 'if your wife had turned to stone, your best friend were a toad, and you had lost your job?'

Space Exporers! Now, You Can Drink Your Own Urine
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'Now, except for weight and heat, the same conditions prevail in this chamber as in space.'

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'there were so many worms and counterworms loose in the data-net...'

Shanghai Guidelines For Humanoid Robots
'Now, look, let's start with the three fundamental Rules of Robotics...'

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What's YOUR sarcasm setting?

Robots Can Now Have Smiling Faces With Human Skin
'I am a cybernetic organism...'

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'..the synthetic intellects at the Place of Knowledge had far outstripped the minds of men.'

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'...six square yards of sunpower screens.'

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