Scrapborn
Scrapborn are a type of virtual life form that arises in old technology with smart device capability. Anything from cellular phones to virtual reality headsets to even smart kitchen appliances. Their cognitive capabilities depend on the device they inhabit with sufficiently complex devices allowing for independent, intelligent entities to arise.
Overview
For many centuries, common superstition held that they arose from technology spontaneously much like how it was once thought that maggots appeared randomly on rotting meat. However, later discoveries showed that Scrapborn actually arise from various species of microscopic virtual life forms coloquially referred to as amoebas. They are usually spread between virtual and synthetic life forms through rogue file transfers beyond the notice of their firewalls. When one of these amoebas attaches itself to a piece of technology, they grow in size and processing capability to fill the environment around them.
While these amoebas were once considered pests, moral questions began to arise when it was demonstrated that they could evolve intelligence by occupying the processing space of the piece of technology they inhabit. As such, it is protocol for virtuoarchaeologists to relocate them rather than destroy them. The only exception to this is if the amoeba shows signs of becoming a Rampant.
Scrapborn are an excellent case study in understanding the evolution of intelligence over a relatively short span of time. Depending on the species of amoeba, the process can take anywhere from a few months to a few years to a few centuries. Some of the oldest Scrapborn have appeared within ancient, abandoned Valerian technology while others have appeared within devices as modest as a toaster.