> ludicrous extreme

I don’t understand this. Are you not familiar with farming and houses? You know humans grow plants to eat (including in backyards and balconies in cities) and make cabins, chalets, houses, entire neighbourhoods (Sweden currently planning the largest) with wood, right?

You are making a caricature of modern lifestyle farming, not an argument for people literally living as they did in the past. Going to your local garden center and buying some seedlings and putting them on your balcony isn't demonstrative of a life like our ancestors lived. Living in one of the wealthiest countries to ever have existed and going to the hardware store to buy expensive hardwoods to decorate your house isn't the same as living as our ancestors did.

You don't realize the luxury you have and for some reason you assume that it is possible without that wealth. The reality of that lifestyle without tremendous wealth is more like subsistence farming in Africa and less like Swedish planned neighborhoods.

> (…) not an argument for people literally living as they did in the past. (…) isn't demonstrative of a life like our ancestors lived. (…) isn't the same as living as our ancestors did.

Correct. Nowhere did I defend or make an appeal to live life “as they did in the past” or “like our ancestor did”. We should (and don’t really have a choice but to) live forward, not backward. We should take the good things we learned and apply them positively to our lives in the present and future, and not strive for change and consumption for their own sakes.

You said: "Humanity survived and thrived before all this unfettered consumption, we don’t need to kill ourselves for more."

To deny that your juxtaposition of this claim with your point about growing seeds and nailing together planks doesn't pass my personal test of credibility. You say: "Stop and think for a moment. You can literally eat food which grows from the ground and make a shelter with a handful of planks and nails." but that isn't indicative of a thriving life as I demonstrated. You can do both of those things and still live in squalor, a condition I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

You then suggest that I don't understand farming or house construction to defend that point, as if the existence of backyard gardens or wood cabins proves the point that a modern comfortable life is possible with gardens and wood cabins. My point is that the wealth we have makes balcony gardens and wood cabins possible and you are reasoning backwards. To be clear, we get to enjoy the modern luxury of backyard gardens and wood cabins by being wealthy and we don't get to be wealthy by making backyard gardens and wood cabins.

> We should take the good things we learned and apply them positively to our lives in the present and future

Sure, and I can argue competitiveness could be a lesson we have learned that can be applied positively. The way it is used positively in team sports and many other aspects of society.