What's up with items coming to life? is there a history of this in previous eras such as in the industrial revolution or high medieval times?
YES this isnt the first instance of items and it wont be the last
items have come and gone in waves, this being the fourth and strongest wave of items surging
items have appeared before the existence of humans, during cavemen eras, and during the medieval ages. most records of items, however, were either lost to time or disregarded as myths [items have even inspired various real myths in the item protocol universe, such as panacea [the cure to all disease iirc] [this will be important in the comic later on]]
as for How they're popping up, scientists dont. really know. the best they got is that items form via fungal spores that grow on objects, and make up their eyes and limbs [which is why these disappear when items die]. theyre not wrong but theyre also not correct. items arent fungi but spore spreading is a pretty accurate description of how they come to be