**Speculative Fictions is a series where Dr. Paul Caplan uses news coverage to predict a 100-word story set at some point in the future.**
This is a fictional story based on an article published in New Atlas
They were everywhere. Almost invisible until they unfolded. Children tried to catch them like falling leaves, Some tried to swat them like midges as they settled on a watch or glasses and laid their message. The Adblockerz had seen off the first robots through vandalism. They’d hacked the holobots’ projectors until they too were withdrawn. But the NanoAds were more difficult. They’d tried shielding their wearables, but the bots tunneled through at the molecular level. They’d tried a virus but once the message was laid the bot ‘died’ anyway. They were now trying inoculation. He focused and counted the breaths.