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"Retire? Yeah, I want to die with my head in the typewriter. That's my idea of retirement."
- Alfred Bester

The Machine (M)  
  An autonomous robot able to alter its appearance and functionality at will.  

The machine was a foot wide and two feet long: it looked like an oversized box of crackers. Silently, with great caution, it climbed the side of a concrete building; it had lowered two rubberized rollers and was now beginning the first phase of its job...


('The Unreconstructed M' by Philip K. Dick)

Beam, holding the cigaret lighter, walked toward the M. A receptor stalk waved toward him and the machine retreated. Its lines wavered, flowed, and then painfully reformed. For an interval, the device struggled with itself; then, reluctantly, the portable t-v unit again became visible.

Technovelgy from The Unreconstructed M, by Philip K. Dick.
Published by Science Fiction Stories in 1957
Additional resources -

I don't have text references, but readers might compare the Shrike from Dan Simmon's 1989 novel Hyperion and the Aleph from Gregory Benford's 1983 novel Against Infinity.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Unreconstructed M
  More Ideas and Technology by Philip K. Dick
  Tech news articles related to The Unreconstructed M
  Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick

The Machine (M)-related news articles:
  - MorpHex MKII The Unreconstructed Hexapod
  - Metal That Morphs
  - Liquid Metal Terminator Development Hums Right Along
  - Liquid Metal Shape-Changing 'Soft Robotics'
  - Shapeshifter Robot Is Comprised Of Cobots
  - FlexRAM Liquid Metal RAM And One Particular SF Movie Robot

Articles related to Robotics
Robot Gas Station Attendant Pumps Gas For You
SnapBot Robots - You Choose Their Legs And They Choose Their Gaits
Humanoid Robots Building Humanoid Robots
What's The Best Way To Ship And Unpack Humanoid Robots?

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