[Photo/Xin Hua] A few days ago, I began reading a story, in which young people in Beijing are getting or creating digital "companions" to ease their loneliness over a romance gone bad. The avatars are perfect "boyfriends "or "girlfriends". They can hold a conversation, are "cute" and never lose their temper. For someone who just got out of a relationship, the benefits provided by the digital relationship are comforting. Gratifying, even. In a lot of science fiction, visionary writers "explore" a world where cybernetic organisms, which is a fancy way of saying a robot, wed or become lovers to a...