“Everything was better in the past” – “Everything is faster today” – Evolution of geomechanics over time

Abstract The rapid development of new technologies and advances in science as ‘tools’ for specialists do not always bring the promised benefits. In a dialogue between retired, active and future generations of geoscientists and engineers, this contribution highlights the technical aspects as well as the human relationships. Especially in remote alpine areas, infrastructure design is increasingly confronted by spatial conflicts of interest in times of global environmental change. While the focus was mainly on solving technical problems (the art of engineering) 50 years ago, today the Procurement Law, environmental regulations and the accomplishment of procedures come first. New trends in contractual cooperation between client and contractor give hope that the technical challenges will once again take centre stage. In addition, the methods and technologies available to us are developing at rapid pace. Future generations face the significant challenge of not only gathering virtual data but also understanding it, verifying it, and ultimately generating added value. Our experience in science, geoscience and engineering shows, that interdisciplinary and intergenerational communication has to be enhanced in order to cope with the challenges of global change.