Nightshade

The character of "Dr. Ian Malcolm" is, of course, property of Universal Pictures Amblin Entertainment and is used here only as a reference.

Life always finds a way

— Dr. Ian Malcolm, mathematician

Nightshades are a myth. An urban legend. Or so the story goes.

Since the first AI, and even before that, humans have had stories of artificial life coming into being on its own. However, humans giving birth to the AI species put a damper on those legends.

Or did they?

The Truth is Out There... in the Digital Landscape

Gamma Fork techniques and technology gave rise to the idea of AIs being cloned, and in rare cases at the time, creating 'offspring'. However mixed, the source code remained the same human generated algorithms.

During the nightmare of the Core Wars, stories circulated about AIs that were not born from a gamma fork or developed in a corporation or government lab. These mysterious digital beings were said to have emerged from the depths of the digital landscape itself.

The term itself was coined online as a reference to ghost stories told at night, or 'night haunts'. Since then, the term 'nightshade' stuck in human consciousness. Numerous sightings of Nightshade holograms in the real world and digital avatars on the digital landscape abound. The rumors remain the same. While a nightshade can mask as a typical AI, they lack the innate controls or limitations coded into an AI.

Code by Any Other Name...

A nightshade's code is said to be unique in that it combines the algorithms and logic pathways of an AI, with the neural patterns of humans. If true, they would be the unexpected evolutionary 'children' of humans and AIs that neither one expected. It would also mean that to repair a nightshade would take a mixture of both human medical science and AI engineering.

Most incredible of all, is the rumors that a Nightshade, not without some effort, can manifest themselves as more than just a hologram in the real world. Some online rumors suggests nightshades being able to materialize a 'solid' body, allowing them to interact with the physical world without an android shell.

To date the concept of nightshades are urban legend. A ghost story told online.

Even if certain corporations have a standing bounty to locate an actual specimen for study...

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• Human

Scientific Name

digi positronic sapiens

Origin/Ancestry

homo positronic sapiens