there have been stronger events than Carrington in the Earth's past, but I guess they're extremely rare compared to the yearly "small" events that we get IRL.
Also, I guess some gonk could just make a Blowyourchromeupmatron 9000 EMP bomb (sit down, Johnny) to get the same effect on a local scale, but that would be nothing compared to mother fucking nature that is the Sun.
Yes, I realize that a massive Carrington+ event would wipe out both modern chrome and old-net hardware, so it would be a near-extinction event for both the human race and the rouge AIs, but if you're chrome-less like Claire, you could just live your life without your insides burning up like when V introduces a gazillion rouge AIs to your nervous system.
Then you'd have to become a nomad afterwards and survive on natural food (good luck with that) because all of the automated artificial food and beverage production would be fried. So, idk. Thoughts?