Me eldest is 10. In the past few weeks I've gone from "I'm pretty sure all my kids are gonna be OK" to "... well, better count on about two of three living with us until they're in their 30s".

I was down on the future in general, but fairly optimistic about my kids' mid-term prospects. Not so much, now. Feels like being on the Titanic just as the deck's starting to noticeably tilt.

I'm telling my kids to get their tractor-trailer license. It'll be 30 years before trucks will be allowed to travel completely autonomously along the road, and in the meantime they'll have autopilot that removes most of the manual burden and allows them to get paid while they sit in the cab to write books, compose music or program applications.

I say it half in jest, but it'll be a long time before politicians allow 80,000lb trucks to wander our highways without a human responsible for it.