Yes! That was the same idea spark I had:

"None of you kids are passing! I would not let a Balrog pass, and so what makes you think any of you shall pass?"

"And what is it with all these micro-staffs? You cannot wallop an orc with a wand. Get a big stick like this, learn to swing it around, you fools!"

Meanwhile

"You elves don't have a Sorting Hat? How exactly are we to choose who will be on this Fellowship journey?"

"And shouldn't these Hobbits still be in school?"

+1 Marketing Gimmick.

There are the German Beer Purity Standards of the 1500s to maintain.

They might do something mundane like "convert my five gallon hobby batch recipe measured in volumes to a twenty barrel recipe measured by weights" that would be useful ... and marketable!

I am sure there is someone at the FAA using the AI to evaluate the slew of documents manufacturers send in. .... "Chat says everything is ok, you're good to go!".

Especially since Chat will not be flying on those machines itself.

Fill a cake pan nearly full with water and slide it sideways across the counter -- observe what happens. That's a pole shift.

Start with these videos and dig in to the other videos in those channels. the The first covers more of the global clues left behind while the second has a better handle on the physics and actual triggers. Every twelve thousand years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EAYgB07ZCE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAlyvbt8Nlk There's that Ancient Apocalypse series on Netflix that covers remains of prior events too, although attributing destruction to asteroid impacts.

Are you going to rely on a robot like say ... cell phones with battery degradation? Have any laptop computers quit working (outside of the battery)? Refrigerator/freezer/HVAC system go on the fritz? There are also a lot of hazards out there that are hard to program-code and plan for because no one has been over there to see.

A short film I saw years ago and can't remember the name, had a planet that launched millions of tiny almond shaped tiny ships into the universe that landed on far flung planets (and stars and everywhere like seeds do) that if on a habitable planet the ships popped open releasing seeds, bacteria, and fungi to initiate life and kick start terraforming. I remember those being tiny and rocket powered. Similar ships could be like dandelion seeds that float through interstellar space on a solar sail and land indiscriminately, but where conditions are right they flourish and are set up for future colonies.

Then trim off the tails ...

small expenditures can accumulate quietly into a massive drain: auto subscriptions like cable/phone, seemingly mild habits like Starbucks and 'smokes', make lunch from home (prior dinner leftovers are easy) not buy at work, cook at home.

On to the other end are the big ones: Rent (can you move/get a roommate), exchange the car for a cheaper car like buy used for cash, phone and phone plans I've seen some pay as much as a car payment.

What do you have around the house to sell? 'Simplify'. You will likely only get 10% of what you paid but that is penance for clearing the CC debt.

Remember: the CC debt % you carry right now will only go up with every Federal Reserve attempt at changing interest rates higher to squash inflation they created by printing cash.

Not Hobbit related, but kid and book related: make sure you check out Project Gutenberg and Librevox. A lot of content. Sure, some browsing/wading but there are gems.

We had Thornton Burgess (Mother West Wind's Children) when I was about the age as yours. Later with my own young kids I used Burgess audio tapes for a long car journey and I think that was from Librevox.

The Hobbit was one of the first big books I read on my own as a kid though.