In the 2009 motion picture Avatar, the consciousness of a paraplegic marine is transferred to a remotely controlled biological body that can survive in the lethal air of the sci-fi planet Pandora. In this fictional world, avatars are genetically engineered biological beings that walk, talk, and are essentially remote-controlled bodies. In the real world of the present, of course, the term “avatar” refers not to a living, three-dimensional body, but rather to a virtual representation of a user in a digital environment. In a very real sense, however, avatars have transcended their self-contained virtual worlds to interact with real people in the “real” world.