i think he implied without industrialism a lot of people would die because of how it feeds the world. so basically just a much smaller number of people living in cabins in the woods, without dirtbikers or lumber mills ruining your day with noise and smell, like what happened to him.   i quit smoking completely, and i take weeks or months off drinking quite without trouble. but the internet is a tough one. not using the internet would make my life incredibly inconvenient, i'm too tied into the system, my entire livelihood (job, income) depends on the internet existing.
Canada