>To restate that: what precise type of disaster would destroy "technological civilization"—presumably, all traces of it, because it's pretty easy to bootstrap back up†—but not the human species itself?
Technology onset: Grey-goo type scenario
Human onset: massive cultural shift to demonize knowledge.
It's happened before. It didn't wipe all technology away, but it slowed progress to a stand-still.
Do you think it'd be possible to choose to "demonize knowledge", in a world where we know that the only way to reproduce requires technology? I would expect our biological imperative to reproduce would get the better of that attempted social more quite quickly.
Technology onset: Grey-goo type scenario
Human onset: massive cultural shift to demonize knowledge.
It's happened before. It didn't wipe all technology away, but it slowed progress to a stand-still.