I did exchanged thoughts many years ago with David Farber, one of the Arpanet founders, was a teacher. The whole Arpanet didn't start as a government project but rather as a university project to connect them.

Moving out of the internet isn't unreasonable and that is a work in progress, look on my profile.

Create networks of devices using radio waves rather than IP addresses. When the grid goes down as seen in parts of Europe this year, radios kept working.

It isn't as convenient as the Internet, in return you do get real privacy and something that keeps working even in tough times.