The only thing in my view that's making Silicon Valley darker is the clouds of smoke that continue to haunt us every year from fires and the only answer we have so far is to cut people's power.
PG&E's deliberate blackouts are the bay area's version of a cement truck falling through the west side highway in 1970s New York. Both cases represent the moment at which it became impossible to ignore the consequences of postponing tough measures needed to solve chronic problems. Bay Area governance has been dysfunctional for a very long time. Now the dysfunction has begun to have severe concrete and physical consequences.
A better analogy is shooting a hostage to make your captors know you're serious.