My account of personal autonomy is based on cognitive science. Psychology is more specialized than biology in that the former deals with the distinguishing features of the human mind-brain.

What you say about the existential rebellion is both a strawman and an ad hominem attack. In the Eastern traditions, the retreat is to the void of nirvana, to some mental form of tranquil detachment. But in what I'm calling the modern world, the retreat is from the wilderness to artificial society.

And you're confusing descriptions with prescriptions. I'm mostly describing the retreat that's actually happening, even if it's happening on an unconscious, unreflective basis. As to whether I think the retreat from nature is wise or sustainable, I'm ambivalent about that. For one thing, as the climatologists tell us, economic and technological "progress" may be self-destructive. Then again, there's the transhumanist hope for a more heroic and astonishing outcome.