If my references are to yesterday, then that means they are grounded in fact. What is true is that if you undo something, some aspect of the previous state will recur. If you undo literacy, some characteristics of oral societies will be retrieved. But only some. You are right, I believe, in using the metaphor of the spiral, rather than the circle.
Patterns recur, but in new ways.
But remember that some spirals go our of control, and this loss of control will not seem very liberating on a 747. To use a popular metaphor for progress, we are driving down a highway. You are right that suddenly shifting into reverse would wreck the car, and if it didn't, driving in reverse would cause an accident. But you seem to want to floor the accelerator, and ignore the brake, and sooner or later this will lead to a disaster. As we round the spiral's curves, we better slow down because we can't see what's up ahead.