The very thought of no more internet frightens me to death but, seriously, how would we cope in life? In business? In education?
Could we recover as a world society ever again without it?
Only way to lose the internet is complete global power failure...so in that case we would be set back to about 1880. As a data center operator I can tell you that if there was a massive EMP or something and some of the world networks got knocked out it would be horrific but we would rebuild quite quickly. There are tons of protocols, and various mediums we could use to connect and begin communication again, especially peer to peer. The internet as we know it may change, but it would adapt quickly.
There is no regulation that can stop transmission of wireless signals across borders effectively, peer to peer decentralized networks, vpn tunnels, tor network, etc. So I dont see the internet ever closing down, just adapting around an impedement.
Now total global power loss and yes, 3/4 of the population would starve or kill one another...at that point the internet would only be a footnote.