> How do you do it when people keep finding new uses for whatever it is Assuming there is an upgrade path it does make sense to plan to turn a thing off. The t

> How do you do it when people keep finding new uses for whatever it is Assuming there is an upgrade path it does make sense to plan to turn a thing off. The thing may consume resources / facilities that could be redeployed, operators could become available for other tasks (or require retraining, etc), or the controlling organisation might need to be restructured. There might be regulatory implications / costs, such as recycling or disposal of controlled substances etc. If a retired thing is 'pure software', disposal might be simplified, but if it has physical or facilities elements (as per military capabilities mentioned by a sibling poster), disposal can be decidedly non-trivial.