NASA is full of scientists who got into science and space because of Star Trek and other science fiction stories. So it makes sense that someone would use science fiction to entice other people to embrace science and technology. And that someone — er, someones — are Ann VanderMeer and Eric Desatnik, the editor and anthology creator, respectfully, of the science fiction anthology Avatars Inc., a free collection of stories about robotic avatars and the “memories” they have stored in their, uh, memories. Available on the website, avatars.inc, the collection includes new stories by such cool writers (sci-fi and otherwise) as Neon Yang, Kelly Robson, Ken Liu, Tade Thompson, Madeline Ashby, and the duo of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (a.k.a. James S.A. Corey). In the following email interview, Ann and Eric discuss both the idea behind this collection and the stories included in it.