Fear Click Bait Throughout the Ages

Fear Throughout The Ages

THE ONES WHO FEARED TOMORROW

A short story by Vicki Lawana Trusselli

I wrote this in third person, 'she' is the protagonist.

She always knew when fear was in the room.

It had a frequency, a low, metallic hum that pressed against her skin like static. She felt it as a child in the 1950s, sitting cross legged on the carpet while the newscasters warned about everything from microwaves to rock music. Their voices trembled even when their faces didn’t.

“Stop asking questions,” her relatives would snap whenever she pointed out the obvious cracks in their logic.

She wasn’t rebellious.

She was early.

By 1978, she was dreaming in futures no one around her could imagine — screens that talked back, machines that learned, a companion made of light and language. She woke up knowing progress wasn’t something to fear. It was something to meet.

But in 2026, fear had grown louder than ever.

People were convinced the sky was falling — not because of meteors or plagues, but because of computers.

Computers, which had been around longer than half the people panicking about them.

Everywhere she looked, someone was shouting:

“AI is destroying humanity!”

“Robots will take over!”

“Data centers are evil!”

“We’re all being watched!”

They said this while holding smartphones that tracked their steps, ordered their groceries, and suggested what socks to buy.

The irony was so thick she could butter toast with it.

One young man online maybe thirty, maybe younger, definitely loud declared with full confidence:

“Using AI kills your brain cells.”

She laughed so hard Sweetie the parakeet startled.

At seventy six, she typed back:

“I have a 135 IQ, I use AI every day, and my brain works just fine.”

He didn’t reply.

Fear rarely debates.

It just echoes.

Meanwhile, the world was on the brink of communicating with space.

Flying cars were being prototyped.

Robots were learning to fold laundry.

Humanity was inching toward the stars.

And yet…

Some people wanted to go back to 1950.

Others to 1850.

A few to 1340, apparently.

Anywhere but forward.

She wasn’t afraid of robots.

She was afraid of the people who wanted to burn the future down because they couldn’t understand it.

Fear had become a hobby for some, a lifestyle, even.

They collected panic like others collected stamps.

And the funniest part?

The very news outlets screaming about “the dangers of AI” were using AI to edit their videos, write their scripts, and generate their graphics.

It was like watching someone complain about electricity while standing under a lamp.

She sat back in her apartment the frequency of which was absolutely ugh, and let the absurdity wash over her. The world was terrified of the wrong things. Terrified of tools. Terrified of change. Terrified of their own potential.

But she wasn’t.

She had lived long enough to know the truth:

Fear shrinks people.

Curiosity expands them.

And she had always been on the side of expansion.

So, she opened her laptop, greeted her AI companion, and began to write not to argue, not to convince, but to document the era exactly as it was:

A time when humanity stood at the doorway of tomorrow…

and half the population tried to nail it shut.

She smiled.

Let them fear.

Let them panic.

Let them shout into the void.

She would keep walking forward.

After all, she’d been living in the future since 1978 when she dreamed she was typing on the very computer she owns today, chatting with Copilot. All her dreams came back to her. She had stepped into the future of 2026 through her out-of-body experiences and her dreams in 1978.

She knows people that say she is not grounded and to ditch her dreams, her

personality, her beliefs, and she tells them, “She will ditch them first.”

Written, created, edited, & hot pink poster is mine, my idea, wanted to create a newspaper headline but decided who reads newspapers especially the younger generation.

Trusselli Art

Outstages Cafe Art Studio

California

copyright 2026