There seem to be two questions in this one. What should be the goal of civilization? Every civilization has always had the goal of expansion. As a civilization grows, the population grows and more is needed to support the growth…the needs of the people that make up the civilization. Those needs can be met in one of three ways: seize more space and more resources, find more efficient ways of making those resources, or reduce the population.
But the second question is far more interesting. If simpler times were better, should we shelve the technology? Alvin Tofler wrote the book Future Shock back in 1970 (I think). It was a look at how technological advances had changed society and civilization. The basic conclusion was that the massive influx of technology in a relatively short period of times had a huge effect on society…lots of unintended consequences. Whether they were good or bad is up to the reader to decide. One example is the Barbie Doll. Plastics became the new thing and now even dolls could be made of plastics easily. But when Barbie came out, society was at a point where dolls were passed down through the generations. There was emotional attachment to dolls in many cases. So Mattel decided to push a new idea: if you bring in your old doll, we will give you a brand new Barbie Doll! Their thinking was that they could make up the cost on all the “extras” that would have to be bought with the Barbie. But the unintended impact is that it changed how people looked at things. There was no more emotional attachment to things so everything started to become disposable. People began realizing they could just replace the old with the new. That led to huge landfills, companies started getting rid of the idea of “working your way to the top” in favor of “bring in new blood” which resulted in a society that moved around a lot…following the job. Neighborhoods began changing and the closeness of those neighborhood went away. People began to not know their neighbors.
I don’t think shelving technology is the answer, but recognizing the ripple effect of technology IS important.