Dear Paul,

«Modern society as we know it centainly has advantages over those less developed in a physical sense.»

Correct, but we already have a modern society for over a century - we don't need an ultra-modern one.

«Meeting our material needs and wants, requires far less effort than once was the case»

Our needs were fully met by the 20th century, and often with only one breadwinner per family, and not too long work-hours either.
Our wants are a different story, they are emotionally-based and no amount of matter can satisfy our hunger for meaning and to avoid the feeling of emptiness.
Filling an empty stomach with material food makes sense,
but filling an emotional hole with material products is a false solution since no amount of matter is going to fill it.

Besides, making efforts is not always a bad thing!

«Technical development in areas such as health and food production, has been of great benefit to a minority of the world's population, there is no denying that.»

Health is an exception - relieving pain is so important. I do not deny that.

Food production? Only as long as lack of food, or lack of healthy nutritious food is a problem.
We are well beyond these times and even while there could be enough for everyone if we wanted, a large portion of technologically-enabled food produced today is unhealthy junk.

You said "such as": other than medicine I struggle to find other areas where the benefits of technical developments outweigh their ill-effects.

" I struggle to find other areas where the benefits of technical developments outweigh their ill-effects."

Says a man typing up his thoughts on a device that would have been considered magical a mere 50 years ago which not only allows him to disseminate his thoughts peoples all over the planet and to stay in instant touch wth relatives, loved-ones and acquaintances but also gives him almost instant access to the accumulated knowledge of all mankind.

But he thinks these benefits are outweighed by the detriments and will of coarse relinquish access to this device.

Dear Mhaze,

50 years ago?
That's 1975 - I was using punched cards at the time.

First I would write what I wanted to punch on 80-column chequered papers,
(because once a card is punched, the holes could not be back-spaced and unpunched, so on any error the card would have to go in the bin)
then take the time to carefully punch from that draft, using a very similar keyboard, as the empty cards shuffled by,
and then if there was too much to say, then the deck of cards would be quite heavy and cumbersome, and might not even fit into the computer's card-reader in one go, and yes, that would upset the operator.

That gave me the time to consider what, if any, I really wanted to tell the world and weed out the silly, impetuous and unworthy ideas.
Not much was left.
And it would also save my readers the trouble and waste of time,
So they can instead enjoy the real world outside and interact with live people (relatives, loved-ones and acquaintances).

allows him to disseminate his thoughts peoples all over the planet and to stay in instant touch
mhaze,
Yes, even bad thoughts & information hence the Woke ! Inventions are invariably misused, just look at explosives & chemicals etc. With the right mentality good outcomes are achieved. With poor mentality you get Woke & Socialism. Neither have so-far proven to be the answer.

Yuyutsu, Puched Cards ? 1975 ?
You must have been working in a museum !
I was working on computers in 1960 and punched cards
were thought old hat then.
Our input came from the data prep girls on magnetic tape.
Ahhh, the girls I remember them, I wonder how they all turned out !