To be clear as to the extent of Earth's "supposed" damage: think "Worldwide Burning of Alexandria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_alexandria#Destruction_of_the_Library)". How could we cope with a sudden breakdown in infrastructure and still hold the Internet together?
I'm thinking that it would involve a lot of wifi hopping. I was looking to discuss some other hackerish ways.
Thinking about it more, what about:
* A lot of dedicated space on computers for p2p/reversion control gracefully degrading storage. To preserve knowledge.
* An ability to utilize any computer with a unified OS.
* Power and battery systems: UPS and a preservation of laptops and netbooks? Perhaps some mobile phones (though the iPhone doesn't come to mind, for obvious reasons).
* Mailing beacons? A way to Old Pentium II boxes with some puppy Linux and a wireless antenna?
* A change in culture: growing a hacker ethic in children and getting people to pass on their knowledge, rather than use it for profit (or limit the growth of such use to 3rd-world nations; etc).
2) It seems to me that the better part of building any technology is just knowing that's its possible in the first place. If memories of the internet "before the crash" were still fairly vivid in the people trying to recreate it, it could be done much faster the second time around.