#this already happens in canon - but I think having it be a sort’ve… more concrete cultural thing that happens could be interesting

[synthetic-rust]

One thing I’ve wondered about within the ‘Thomas universe’ is wether or not people would be more inclined to keep around older generations of machine a bit longer so they could effectively teach the newer models how to go about things…

I feel like new machines would probably have a general sense of how to carry out their purpose already, but they don’t have any experience or knowledge to fall back on yet. So there’d be still be some use in keeping around one that’s more experienced to try guide them a bit.

I do imagine that would feel rather morose for the soon to be replaced machine, to see themselves be directly phased out of use… but it could be an interesting way of having them complete their purpose. One last way to be useful in a sense.

Though I think the fun part comes in how this dynamic could go any number of ways for both parties. ‘Sagely teacher who mostly accepts their fate and tries their best to impart knowledge onto the next generation’ vs ‘teacher who grits their teeth towards the newcomer stealing their job but cannot really do much about it,’ etc.

I feel like this would end up happening organically in places anyway, but I think having it be a concept or practice that the machines are at least aware of would make for something interesting character dynamic wise. Not everyone would end up getting the best advice or guidance to help them, from either human or machine.

‘People aren’t born with certain ideas in their head; they have to come from somewhere,’ type of thing.