Updates go wrong sometimes, and this has happened with multiple consoles from multiple companies, it's not something unique to the PS3 or Sony. Hell, Microsoft has bricked PCs on multiple occasions. Sometimes something just goes wrong in the file transfer, you have to have precognition to see it coming.

Mine is bricked, but I can still access Safe Mode. One of the options there is to install firmware updates using a USB stick, so hopefully once they put out a new update to fix this issue, that's all I'll need to do.