The brain is a very fascinating organ, it can playback music from memory, create new concepts out of old ones and compress data to extreme levels. With the invention of Medical Stasis Tanks the idea eventually appeared to put a brain into a jar and connect it to a computer. Brain jars were born out of this, put a small computer under a brain in a MST and then you have someone talking again when they couldn't. I worked with a brain jar during my time as a thaumaturgy researcher, they are often very just task oriented with things they do. One thing about the brain is that it can just, die. The brain jar I knew constantly feared it's death, ironically I think it helped contribute to it. I noticed it's vitals were slowly going down and so for a few months I moved all of my equipment to the room we kept it in. I have seen people dying before but I really haven't seen someone be so aware of what was happening during it, all I really could do was stay with it during it's final moments of activity...
Due to the continued failure of cryonics in the early 80s researchers looked towards another promising avenue for preserving life, magic healing water. The idea was simple, healing water is easily created through healing magic and it had been observed that constant application could keep a body maintained unlike cryonics which eventually leads to damage, any damage that would occur with healing water would just be healed by said water. Plus the whole thing about unfreezing a creature the size of ourselves is practically impossible with the technology we had then, we still can't do it in the modern day. It would prove to be effective, just put someone in there with a facemask to provide the body with oxygen and in case of long term storage put them in a medically induced coma. The only problem that stands currently is patients waking up due to the oxygen hose breaking or disconnecting, I've personally experienced this and I'll just tell you that you do not want to be trapped in a long glass tube filled with bubbling water, scrathing at the glass unable to exit. Modern models have emergency safety overrides and of course laws have changed meaning those older models are used either for storage or by private individuals. Other than mechanical failures, medical stasis tanks are a common fixture for both long term sleep and medical storage. Most modern hospitals have at least one of these.
The InfaRed Neural Network Observation Sattelite was one of the first pieces of tech to harbor a soul inside of it to be used by the US government. It was launched around the same time as it's sister sattelite, NOAA-11 at the Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex. It is very unusual for two sattelites to be launched around the same time but the IRNNOS project was itself odd. The specifications of the sattelite are still unknown but it is known that it had multiple hard drives for memory storage and it held an preliminary neural network that hosted an animate inside of it. Most public facing documents on the IRNNOS project are heavily redacted, including a log spanning from 1988 to 2004 which contacted the network every 3 months. I didn't personally come across this while using AIM but rumors from back in the day stated that the sattelite itself somehow connected directly to the AIM servers and messaged users junk data. With AIM being shut down as of almost a decade ago, these rumors are likely to just stay what they always were... Another internet legend worth being forgotten.
Limeware was one of few robotics companies to be born out of the late 80s rush of blending computers with magic. Their first main product was the Multi Utility Light Escort, a walking container and survival tool. The M.U.L.E despite being what it was found itself being bought by various governments across the world and some were still in active service during the war in Afghanistan. Their first real public product was sold simply as, "The Synth". To cut a long technology blurb short the Synth used a enchanted slime like substance marketed as Bio-Gel which let it have a stable frame and basically have the technological aspects of the machine act as an "armor" for the biogel. The first generation models of Synths by limeware found it's audience with upper middle class tech enthusiests so a second generation was almost immediatly approved. The second generation models were top of the line for the time, they could "eat" and then turn food or compost into electricity meaning charging wouldn't be needed as often as the first generation. Both generations of synth share applications with Apple systems (most noticeably the PlainTalk being used for their voice synthesis) due to Limeware swapping spit as most tech companies did back then. There was one major problem with the rollout of the G2 series of synths however. Most of the people who already bought G1 synths weren't very interested in the bio-fuel processing capabilities the improved Limeware Bio-Gel had, much less basically paying the same multi thousand pricetag for it and the wider non tech literate public weren't ready for household robots yet, and still aren't ready actually. Due to this they would start going under and eventually would be bought out by a private equity firm which would drain them to collapse then their assets would be bought up by the still weak but very oh so power hungry tech giants of the early 2010s.
Ever wanted to speak like a speak n' spell? Well if you did, you're in luck you freak. The EX-CVM (Express Computer Voice Modulation) Chip is a piece of mid 80s magic technology which interfaces through a computer (through various means depending on the model) to change the voice of the person using it. They are a highly sought after piece of odd technology but also quite rare as to function properly they had to be semi animated to be able to attach themselves to and detach themselves from their hosts. Modern models have been created with bluetooth connections and are better alternative than just picking up a model from 20+ years ago due to the fact that the spells cast to animate them weaken over time and require intense and precise magical energy to recharge. Reproductions often sell out the moment they are put on sale so if you really are desperate get one of those or hope that you'll find one from eBay that still works.