> Primarily because technology always requires physical resources (mining) and habitat destruction

There is no fundamental reason to require such things. As Fuller said, the goal of technology is to “do more and more with less and less until you can do everything with nothing.”

In my view it’s not the idea of technology that has been the problem, but that it was done by people with no understanding of the impacts, or sense of responsibility. The reason our current tech is so nasty and damaging is because our knowledge has been too primitive to do better thus far, and now people are not willing to give it up.

Synthetic biology, for example can now pull carbon straight from the air and make it into nontoxic biodegradable building materials- or really almost anything. This can eventually replace all mining and toxic chemical factories, with basically just old fashioned fermentation in a vat, that neither produces or uses anything toxic- but can replace all of the nasty stuff we currently make from mining and petroleum. A deeper understanding of biology will allow us to further reduce risks and environmental impacts by really deeply understanding which molecules we can make safely without toxic impacts on humans or other species, and without environmental persistence.

You think people in the hunter gatherer days lived a better more humane life? You walked too close to a branch and got a small cut and a few weeks later you are dead. Oh no, You fell and can't get up while a predator is chasing your group, better prepare to be eaten alive. You accidentally ate that one fruit that looks similar to another one, oops you die shitting your bowels out. What's that? You are getting your third child, too bad the other two died in child birth together with their mother.

I really don't think you realize how cushy modern life is compared to even the hardships of a few hundreds years ago.

> I don't believe (and I've never seen any convincing evidence) that we could EVER develop more human and environmentally safe technology.

Come on now. Renewable energy is gaining on fossil fuels around the world. The air in London used to be thick with smog, and now it's not. Acid rain is a thing of the past. The ozone hole is shrinking.

Fire and the wheel are technology; are you against them too?