DSBPI hears of NYC blackout on arrival in TLV. If this were The Matrix, this would be the first strike of the machines against man. As Councilor Hamann (hmmm) said to Neo on the Engineering Level:

Hamann: ... down here, sometimes I think about all those people still plugged into the matrix, and when I look at these machines I ... I can't help thinking that in a way we are plugged into them.
Neo: But we control these machines, they don't control us.
Hamann: Of course not. How could they, the idea is pure nonsense, but it does make one wonder just what is control?
Neo: If we wanted, we could shut these machines down.
Hamann: Of course, that's it, you hit it, that's control isn't it? If we wanted, we could smash them to bits. But if we did, we'd have to consider what would happen to our lights, our heat, our air.