Watch Michael Jackson's Hologram Perform on the Billboard Music Awards

We're officially living in the future: We've come so far that not even death can stop a pop star from performing a song, released posthumously, on live TV.

That's what happened at the Billboard Music Awards last night, as a hologram of Michael Jackson took the stage to perform "Slave to the Rhythm." The song is off of the King of Pop's posthumous album "Xscape," which already has a hit in "Love Never Felt So Good" featuring Justin Timberlake.

The performance featured a "hologram" of Jackson dancing to and singing the song, even moonwalking across the stage at one point.

The term "hologram" isn't exactly correct in describing the technology behind the stunt, though it is the one that has been adopted by the media. More accurately, the image is a projection of Jackson onto a clear glass or plastic surface that makes him appear to be an actual person on the stage.

This isn't the first time a musician has appeared on stage posthumously using this technology; Tupac Shakur made an appearance at Coachella years back using the same technique. In fact, the companies that own the technology used to create these "holograms" attempted to block the Michael Jackson performance at the Billboard Awards, and only on Friday did a judge rule that the performance could proceed as planned.

It makes sense that their lawsuit would fail, considering the fact that this sort of technique has existed for centuries. Only now, we have the ability to make it look as real as if Jackson were really there.

Watch Jackson's posthumous hologram performance below: