Avatar is *not* the movie you wanna go by for speculative science.
I would look at the pseudoretroviral organelles they found that can rapidly change genetic code across an organism, CRISPR-CAS9 research, and neural interface technology. Give it a couple decades, and we'll likely at least be able to feel completely virtual touch with our brains. This will likely bring about an entirely new dimension to the human experience. Imagine being able to not only see and hear a person who's far away, but touch them, hold their hand, give them a hug... he'll, combine that with XR and you *can* experience being your fursona, tail and all. And it's not like there aren't researchers who would look into doing this for furries specifically. Keep in mind, the person who led the development of the Moderna COVID vaccine was a furry, and so are a huge portion of telecommunications specialists.
