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| 5 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 11 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1503037810056781700 |
| 12 | %% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread. |
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| 14 | %% Clipart by Tropers/Synchronicity |
| 15 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blackbox.png]] |
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| 17 | ->''"You don't really know how powerstones work. You've created a whole city that relies on an energy source you do not understand. 'Magic!' you say. 'It's magic!' Oh, how clever. And then when the magic fails, you simply say, 'It must have been more magic!'"'' |
| 18 | -->-- '''Yawgmoth''', ''Literature/TheThran'' |
| 19 | |
| 20 | In engineering terminology, a "black box" is a device with one or more inputs (cake ingredients, an excerpt of text in Mandarin, iron ore), one or more outputs (cake, the same text translated into Frisian, a battle golem), and an internal process that is either: |
| 21 | |
| 22 | # irrelevant and/or needlessly complicated. |
| 23 | # unknown and/or unknowable. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | In narrative terms, this is a device that produces [[ClarkesThirdLaw near magical results]] but the comprehension of the device is at best a guess by the characters, meaning [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup if it breaks, a replacement is not easy]]. The original creator is unavailable (either dead, [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum an alien]] or from [[LostTechnology a long-gone civilization]] or otherwise can't be reached), but said technology is really convenient. Such technology falls into the hands of some organization, usually the military or a commercial business. The organization's analysts went over the thing, and while most of it makes sense, there are these elements, either program or device, [[LowCultureHighTech that they cannot comprehend at all.]] Removing them causes the entire thing to simply not function (or triggers a [[MurderousMalfunctioningMachine more active response]]). The organization may be able to reverse-engineer copies, or lesser versions, but they don't understand how it actually works. |
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| 27 | So, since the financial bottom line or military advantage is so important, they go along with it anyways. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | ... Yes, of course, the technology has a bizarre effect that nobody could have predicted -- you really need to keep track of those inputs and outputs! Usually, it's in the form of acquiring [[InstantAIJustAddWater sentience]] or a bizarre weapon, or only being able to be used by people of the show's [[CompetenceZone target demographic]]. (It's common in HumongousMecha series.) |
| 30 | |
| 31 | This is surprisingly common in RealLife, with many different scientific fields having their own viewpoint on the issue. This is particularly known in programming, where the programmer is the only one who really understands how what they've built works (and sometimes, not even ''them''[[note]]Even a "simple" (no graphics, purely command-line and input file driven and with the only output being more text files) scientific application that does anything actually useful can easily exceed ten thousand lines of code in a high-level language and is probably the result of the work of multiple people, none of whom knows ''every'' detail of the parts they didn't write. And even if a single dedicated programmer wrote the whole thing personally, it's virtually certain that at least some of it uses infrastructure in the form of library routines or system calls that were not written by the same programmer.[[/note]]). It is something of a RunningGag in tech start-up culture that being the first to design the infrastructure of a new system is ultimate job security, as it would take years for another programmer to understand the coding to the same degree. This is especially evident in high-level languages, where the programmer can for example tell the computer to replace all occurrences of "cake" with "apple" in a text, and doesn't have to worry about how the system does it -- they get a changed text back and that's that. This also happens in pharmacology, where it might be discovered that a drug has a positive effect on people with a certain illness but when it's first used doctors and scientists don't understand why. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | In a ScavengerWorld, most complex technology is like a Black Box, because generations that grew up AfterTheEnd don't know how {{Precursor|s}} technology works. And with so few to reverse engineer junk, when just surviving is a daily challenge, much of it becomes LostTechnology. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | SisterTrope to DisposableSuperheroMaker. Compare MissingStepsPlan, {{Unobtanium}} and InWorkingOrder. See also RightForTheWrongReasons. |
| 36 | |
| 37 | Not to be confused with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_box_%28transportation%29 "Black box"]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_recorder flight recorders]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_box_theater the kind of theatre]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Box_(band) the Italian house music group]], the method of [[ClassifiedInformation c██████████ information]], [[Creator/BlackBox the former video game developer]] who used to make the ''VideoGame/{{Skate}}'' series and various ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed'' games, or a black-colored CensorBox. |
| 38 | |
| 39 | ---- |
| 40 | !!Examples: |
| 41 | |
| 42 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 43 | |
| 44 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 45 | %%* The Clow Cards in the first arc of ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura''. The cards are sentient, though most are astonishingly specialized, and their creator is dead [[spoiler:but returns anyway in the form of his reincarnation in the second arc]]. |
| 46 | * In ''Anime/EurekaSevenAO'', all [=IFOs=] are equipped with a "Third Engine" based on technology found in the Nirvash. They know it can use trapar as fuel, giving the IFO theoretically limitless flight time, and the Nirvash has increased speed and maneuverability while using it, but they have no idea how to turn it on or how it does these things. Elena and Fleur do eventually manage to get theirs working, but it only lasts as long as it needs to for them to rescue Ao, then shuts off almost immediately once he's free. Elena credits The Power of Love, which, given the previous series, is most likely the exact reason it worked. It activates a second time for Fleur in the finale, but nothing comes of that. |
| 47 | * ''Anime/GaoGaiGar'': In one flashback, characters actually discuss a strange interface on Galeon, an alien mecha lion, and refer to it as a Black Box. Once they figure out how to activate it, it contains designs for half the AppliedPhlebotinum in the show. |
| 48 | * The Kabizashi blades in ''Manga/KnightsOfSidonia'', which are the only weapons that can kill Gauna. No one knows for sure how they work, and no one knows how to make more of them. They were recovered from inside a mysterious BigDumbObject floating in space, and their properties discovered by complete accident. [[spoiler:Production is later established. Understanding? Not so much.]] |
| 49 | * The GN drives in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00''. GN Drive technology can be mass produced in months (reversed engineered by TheFederation from the GN-X drive model), but ''true'' GN Drives, the ones which emit green "pure" particles used by Celestial Being's Gundams, are equipped with a "Topological Defect" Blanket, which can only be manufactured around Jupiter with a total production time of six years. Somehow harnessing the power of topological defects (a mathematical solution involving differential equations) allows the drive to funnel energy back into itself, allowing for unlimited operation time. Additionally, Celestial Being's true GN Drives have a literal black box which no-one could figure out, which turns out to contain [[spoiler:the data for the Gundams' [[SuperMode Trans-Am Function]] and the Twin-Drive System]]. |
| 50 | %%* Used in ''Manga/{{Mahoromatic}}''. Mahoro was built using incompletely understood ImportedAlienPhlebotinum, including the power source, which leads to the Death Clock, as the power source cannot be refueled or recharged by Earthly technology. [[spoiler:It ''can'' be recharged by SAINT -- they just don't get around to doing it in time, focusing on fixing the horribly botched job on Minawa first.]] |
| 51 | * In ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'', nobody has the technology to build new airship engines anymore, so when an airship is downed, there's a scramble to salvage the irreplaceable engines. |
| 52 | * The development of the Evangelions in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' is very much along the lines of this trope, with Misato even namedropping it in Episode 20. TheReveal is that [[spoiler:they were [[MeatSackRobot constructed using Angel DNA]]]], but due to their EldritchAbomination nature, they're unpredictable and dangerous to even use. The S2 engine (recovered from an Angel corpse) is a particularly fitting example. American attempts to reverse engineer the device and implant it in an Eva result in a massive disaster -- the test engine and Eva Unit-04 ''vanishes'', along with the entire research facility and all other objects in a 50-mile radius. |
| 53 | * ''Manga/OutlawStar'': |
| 54 | ** The eponymous CoolShip and [[spoiler:Melfina]] are [[TheReveal revealed]] to have been created based on the unknown data (the black box) that Gwen Khan could not translate from an advanced ancient civilization which is implied to have created all of the ancient ruins of the galaxy. [[spoiler:Only Melfina can open the door to the Galatic Leyline itself, and grant the people that go there their ultimate desire.]] |
| 55 | ** For a while, the Caster Gun employed by main character Gene Starwind was a black box of lost knowledge. Caster guns are essentially antique pistols that fire unique shells with a wide variety of effects that can even counteract the magical attacks of Tao Masters. Nobody knows whether they are lost technology or, as later confirmed, magic that has been encapsulated within the shells. |
| 56 | * The flying machines in ''Anime/{{Simoun}}'' have two black boxes: the "Helical motor" (according to the sub) and the "Simoun Gem". Trying to find out how these things work apparently drives you mad for a little while. |
| 57 | * The sentinel stations in ''Anime/SoundOfTheSky''. Felicia points out that they're just checking to see if they still work and there's nothing that can be done if they're broken. Noël even calls them a black box. |
| 58 | * In ''Manga/ToraKissASchoolOdyssey'', we have Academy Island and the Monument. Structures of unknown origins carrying huge amounts of information, some of it on science and technology that are light years ahead of anything on Earth. People can access that information to some extent, but have no idea how the database holding it works or where it comes from. |
| 59 | * The [[LostTechnology plants]] in ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'' can do pretty much anything depending on how you power them, but nobody's really sure how they run anymore. (The manga actually calls them "humanity's ultimate black box".) |
| 60 | * In the American release of ''Anime/{{Voltron}}'' (which combined the separate series ''Anime/GoLion'' and ''Anime/DairuggerXV''), it's established that the Vehicle Voltron was built as an ''imitation'' of the original Lion Voltron built by the late King Alfor of Arus. Since the original Voltron is semi-mystical in nature and the magic was not copyable, the duplicate can only stay [[CombiningMecha unified]] in giant robot form for five minutes at a time. |
| 61 | * A scientist in ''Manga/YozakuraQuartet'' equates the workings of {{Youkai}} and supernatural powers to Black Box technology. He makes the comparison that just as we don't understand how magic works, most people don't understand how a computer turns on apart from pushing the "on" button. |
| 62 | %%* ''Franchise/{{Zoids}}''. The Ultimate X zoids are shown to have a "black box" that other zoids do not. |
| 63 | [[/folder]] |
| 64 | |
| 65 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 66 | * ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'''s heart was constructed by Nikola Tesla using means that not even Robo can even take a guess at, and by the 2010s, the world's leading nuclear physicist couldn't even come close to recreating it even with access to the most advanced lab and unlimited funding. He could make a theoretical copy, but it would only operate half as effectively as the original, would be significantly larger, and would be constructed mostly out of material that ''doesn't exist''. [[spoiler:The eventual replacement is also a black box, which is constructed by delegating the task to one of the world's most advanced AI's, which at that point is in a dead-but-dreaming kind of state, which takes the manufacturing task on board, does ''something'' and spits out a new heart that works slightly better than the original but is just as baffling.]] |
| 67 | * ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'''s shield is essentially a Black Box in design; made of an unknown alloy of [[{{Unobtainium}} Vibranium]], other metals and a mysterious bonding agent -- which the creator doesn't know about, having fallen asleep during its production -- which results in a shield that has properties unlike anything else in existence. Some say that agent was [[RightMakesMight American Rightousness]] (as opposed to [[PatrioticFervor American self-righteousness]]), explaining why it seems to act as almost an EmpathicWeapon to Cap. |
| 68 | * Eega Beeva of the ''ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse'' is a man from the future with hyper-advanced technology like [[BagOfHolding bottomless pockets]]. In one issue, desperate scientists hoping to secure their funding ask him for one of his gadgets to study. He pulls out a literal black box, claiming it can replicate anything known in his time but, to their disappointment, as far as their instruments can study it's just a solid block of inert molecules, putting them back at square one. |
| 69 | %%* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'': NICOLE came down from the sky, and not even their technical expert Rotor knows how it works. He did use the system to beef up his firewalls, to Eggman's extreme annoyance: |
| 70 | %%-->'''Eggman:''' I HATE that Rotor! I hack and I hack, and I hack, and do I find anything? Do I get past his firewalls? NO! Not only is his defense system too good...\ |
| 71 | '''The Firewall:''' [[{{Emoticon}} XP]]\ |
| 72 | '''Eggman:''' It's downright RUDE! |
| 73 | * ''ComicBook/StarLord'' has his Element Gun, given to him by [[EnigmaticEmpoweringEntity the Master of the Sun]], er... [[{{Retcon}} his father]] when he was just a teenager. Quill's carried it all the way up through to the modern day, but in ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2020'', he notes he's modified it, changed its appearance, and even managed to build a spare... and he still has no idea how it actually ''works''. |
| 74 | * In ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'', ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan admits that he does not understand any of the principles under which the M-Vest -- which grants him his powers -- works, as the vest was constructed by Meta's greatest scientist and he was the equivalent of a beat cop. While he understands how to operate the basic functions, he needs the Squad's resources to try and figure out how to get it to return him to his home dimension. |
| 75 | * The first three ''Comicbook/THUNDERAgents'' were all recipients of black boxes. As their origin shows, their devices were found amid the rubble of the lab of a famous inventor, who had been killed by minions of [[DiscOneFinalBoss the Warlord]]. The Warlord's mooks had looted the place, but missed a few items. Several early stories were about the agents discovering drawbacks to their new powers. |
| 76 | [[/folder]] |
| 77 | |
| 78 | [[folder:Films -- Animated]] |
| 79 | * This is a main plot point in ''WesternAnimation/RobotechTheShadowChronicles''. The Haydonites provide humans with shadow technology which greatly aids them in fighting Invid, but [[spoiler:the technological information supplied by Haydonites is incomplete]], so even though the shadow devices were built by humans themselves, they still have flaws which [[spoiler:Haydonites]] exploit when they attack humans. |
| 80 | [[/folder]] |
| 81 | |
| 82 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 83 | * The Machine in ''Film/{{Contact}}'' is ImportedAlienPhlebotinum. Humans are given plans for a Machine, but not an explanation of what it's supposed to do or how it does it. When it's activated, [[spoiler:the chair for the occupant drops straight through in a matter of seconds, while 18 hours passes for the occupant, causing onlookers to think that it didn't work. One scientist remarks that the video recording from the chair consists of 18 hours of static]], which he is unable to explain. |
| 84 | * ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': For all of [[EvilInc Apex Cybernetics]]' boastings about human superiority over the Titans, their secret project is actually extremely reliant on seizing outside resources which are eldritch in nature as key materials to make the thing work at all; and Apex intend to use ''both'' resources with only a surface understanding of their capabilities and no true understanding of their inner workings. [[spoiler:Apex have converted Ghidorah's skull into a WetwareCPU for Mechagodzilla based on their discovery that Ghidorah's remains retain a [[{{Telepathy}} telepathic]] connection to each-other, and]] Apex are planning to use the MineralMacGuffin in the HollowEarth as a power source for their superweapon based on their remote satellite discovery that it has high energy readings. [[spoiler:Mixing these two things into a HumongousMecha without an in-depth understanding of either of them ultimately leads to Ghidorah's subconsciousness from the skull taking control of a fully-charged, super-destructive Mechagodzilla for itself.]] "Monkey see monkey do" indeed. |
| 85 | * ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'': |
| 86 | ** In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', when the Red Skull finds the glowing blue Tesseract (a version of the all-powerful cosmic cube of marvel comics) he uses it as an energy source for his tanks and weapons. Until his supposed death when the cube sustained damage from Captain America's shield and began to warp reality itself, he only saw it as an unlimited power source. Ditto for the scientists on the American side, who attempted to harvest the minuscule yet overwhelming bits of energy powering the guns (blasting a hole in one of the research facilities when they tried to discover its properties). |
| 87 | ** ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' has the Staff, which HYDRA uses to conduct experiments in giving folk superpowers and developing artificial intelligence... somehow. The implication is they were just throwing stuff at the wall to see what stuck, since they only come out the other end with a lot of non-functioning robots and only two traumatized teens with superpowers. Later on, it's implied the Staff, which is alive in some form, is what brings Ultron to full sentience. |
| 88 | ** It's already implied in ''Film/TheAvengers2012'' that there's more to the Tesseract than Red Skull's experiments, but both the Tesseract and the Staff are later revealed to be Infinity Stones, representing a fundamental aspect of the Universe itself, and become the core plot of ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''. |
| 89 | ** Tony Stark's superscience had many demonstrations throughout the franchise, so ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'' and ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'' have what amount to Stark Industries black boxes, in the former a device in Tony's jet that Peter uses to create an advanced Spidey suit, and in the latter a machine in one of Tony's old bunkers that develops [[SaveTheVillain whatever could fix the conditions of the universe-hopping villains]] (and in a demonstration of "no easy replacements", once the Green Goblin destroys the thing it takes [[AllianceOfAlternates three Spider-Men]] to finish the research). |
| 90 | %%* The "Siamese Burn" unit in ''Film/TheScribbler'' -- basically a home electroshock therapy device to rid mental patients of unwanted multiple personalities. It evolves into LowCultureHighTech as, during the lead character's treatment-induced fugue states, she uses it to build an ImportedAlienPhlebotinum device using purloined scrap electronics. |
| 91 | %%* In ''Film/{{Sneakers}}'' the whole plot revolves around a black box device which is able to decrypt any western encryption (not the Russian encryption-methods, however). |
| 92 | * The guidance system abroad the Russian communication satellite in ''Film/SpaceCowboys'' is a downplayed example -- it's not an artifact of a lost civilization, it's just so archaic that no-one except the original creator understands it. |
| 93 | -->''"It's pre-microprocessor! It's pre-EVERYTHING!"'' |
| 94 | * The Algorithm that is the MacGuffin of ''Film/{{Tenet}}'' is specifically referred to as this. |
| 95 | -->'''Neil:''' It's a formula, rendered into physical form so it can't be copied or communicated. It's a black box with one function. Inversion, but not objects or peoples. [[DoomsdayDevice The world around us.]] |
| 96 | * In ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'', the eponymous League doesn't have much of an idea how the Mother Boxes work beyond using one to resurrect Superman with a big electrical impulse. Steppenwolf, meanwhile, uses them to teleport himself via Boom Tubes. |
| 97 | [[/folder]] |
| 98 | |
| 99 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 100 | * In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', the kids are given the power to morph by touching the Blue Box by the alien Elfangor [[spoiler:right before he is eaten alive by Visser Three.]] Later, [[SixthRanger David]] shows up with the same blue box and it is used to give him morphing power even though no one present has any idea how the technology works. [[spoiler:This happens later again when the Auxiliary Animorphs are created, and yet ''again'' when the Yeerks steal the blue box and use the morphing power to create their own soldiers with the morphing ability.]] |
| 101 | * In ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'', [[GrailInTheGarbage the remains of John Galt's motor were found in an abandoned motor factory]]. Dagny Taggart's new purpose in life (for the next few chapters at least) is to find a scientist to reverse engineer the motor and put it to use on her railroad. It's a particularly interesting case, as Galt realized that the unbelievable stupidity of Starnes heirs were the symptoms of a cultural decline. He could thus safely walk off and leave [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup the prototype and the plans]] ''right there in the lab'' without fear that they would be stolen, as no mind capable of understanding how valuable they were, let alone making use of them, would ever work there again. A notable ''subversion'' of LowCultureHighTech. |
| 102 | * The O/BEC processors in ''Literature/BlindLake''. Created by accident due to the use of self-rewriting code, not even the scientists who operate them are quite certain how they do what they do. There are only two in existence; all attempts to make a third by replicating the conditions that led to the first two have failed. |
| 103 | * In ''Literature/{{Competitors}}'', the alien technology aboard the [[SpaceStation Platform]] is so far beyond human understanding that it took the people sent there years to figure out certain basic things. Unfortunately, most people who end up there lack any technical background, so any engineer who finds his or her way to the Platform is paid handsomely to try to figure out how to even work the systems, much less reverse-engineer them. The engineers also have a fairly high fatality rate due to the fact that they have really no idea what they're doing. Sure, the ships left by the mysterious aliens have fairly basic analog controls (dumbed down for an average human), but it took at least a year to figure out that there are toilets aboard. It took about as long to figure out how to flush one without depressurizing the whole ship. [[spoiler:The aliens are giving bits and pieces of their tech to their human contacts on Earth, allowing their contacts to get filthy rich off the patents]]. |
| 104 | * In ''Literature/DeathOrGlory'', anything produced by the [[InsectoidAliens Swarm]] is so far beyond what the rest of TheAlliance can do that they can't even grasp the principle behind the functionality. On the other hand, they have managed to at least learn to produce exact copies of some of the devices. The same applies to any piece of [[{{Precursors}} Departed]] tech that's discovered. |
| 105 | * In the Russian ''Literature/DeathZone'' SharedUniverse, the mechanical artifacts found in the Five Zones usually fit this trope. While people understand that they're a product of MechanicalEvolution from runaway terraforming nanites called skorgs (it turns out that releasing them on Earth instead of Mars was a bad idea), affected by the mysterious Zones, it's almost impossible to reproduce the devices without, basically, copying what the skorgs are doing. This doesn't stop many people, groups, and outside corporations from studying them. Stalkers have also figured out how to use some of the equipment in their daily lives, but they still have no idea how it works. |
| 106 | * The Belt of Deltora from ''Literature/DeltoraQuest'' is technically a Black Box, with the belt part itself the box and the gems the internal mechanisms. It can be assumed that no one knows exactly how it works; indeed, how it works is irrelevant. All anyone knows is that the Belt is "greater than the sum of its parts" and removing one of the pieces (i.e., one of the gems) would stop it functioning. |
| 107 | * ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': |
| 108 | ** The Devices discovered by dwarfs are ancient Black Boxes with assorted functions, including power sources and recording devices, and often cube-shaped to boot. Part of the reason why nobody knows how they work is that they're also totally indestructible -- it's hard to study the insides of something you can't open. |
| 109 | ** The magical supercomputer Hex is also a Black Box; it's added so many peripheral devices to itself that even its original designer, Ponder Stibbons, is no longer sure exactly how it works. (He's also OrganicTechnology; he uses ants instead of electrons.) |
| 110 | * In ''Literature/{{Friday}}'', there is the ''Shipstone''; a battery that comes in sizes from a lifetime miniature system for a flashlight, to a large battery that can power a house, to a possibly colossal one that powers spaceships. The ''black box''-ness of it comes because the inventor never patented it, since that would require that he publish the schematics. He just started a company and started manufacturing them under lots of secrecy. Attempts at dismantling and reverse engineering a shipstone usually resulted in a big kaboom. |
| 111 | * ''Literature/FullMetalPanic'' has a bunch of 'Black Technology', created by the mysterious 'Whispered'. Many are simply extrapolations of existing technologies, which are mass-produced and change the world drastically -- Whispered are explicitly ''not'' [[ReedRichardsIsUseless useless]]. Others, however, are perfect examples of the trope -- Foremost among them is the 'Lambda Driver', a true Black Box which enables users to [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve warp the laws of physics through sheer willpower]]. |
| 112 | %%* Parodied in ''The Galaxy Game'' by Phil Janes, in which a scientist trying to master FasterThanLightTravel for a trip to the stars finds three small boxes each printed with the words "Inertialess Device" in his kitchen cupboard one day. We later find out they were put there by bored EnergyBeings who pit civilisations against each other for sport. |
| 113 | * In Dave Barnett's ''Literature/GideonSmith'' novels, the British eventually control the mechanical brass dragon, Apep. Apep, despite being made in ancient Egypt during Akneheten's reign, is beyond the ability of a late 19th century {{Steampunk}} Britain. The British would dearly love to copy Apep but can't because of all the {{Magitek}} used in its construction. British scientists have tested Apep and the mechanical doll bound to it, so they know that Apep can fly at 100 miles per hour (and possibly faster than that) and it has an unlimited supply of fireballs that are 1949 Celsius in temperature and these never lose any intensity of heat until they hit a target. However their studies show that the clockwork mechanisms making up Apep, should not have been able to work and they have no idea where Apep's fireballs come from. The only thing they know is that it takes a number of magical artifacts to use Apep. |
| 114 | * The titular Deathly Hallows of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'': a wand more powerful (and less "loyal") than any other, an invisibility cloak that never stops working (as invisibility cloaks in that universe are wont to do), and a stone that can summon the shades of the dead from the afterlife. Legend has it that they were created by the Grim Reaper himself and gifted to three brothers. Dumbledore speculates that it's more likely that said brothers were just prodigiously talented magical craftsmen. Whatever the case, no one has been able to replicate their three masterworks. |
| 115 | * In ''Literature/HeavyObject'', the targeting system of Objects requires regular calibrations incorporating the expertise of three separate engineering disciplines and the intuition of the Elite. Because of the odd interaction between such differing methods and the unique human factor of the Elite, nobody is entirely certain how the system works, only that it does. |
| 116 | * This exact phrase is used to describe the Highway in Creator/WilliamGibson's short story "Literature/{{Hinterlands}}". Astronauts go in and come out, sometimes bringing back pieces of alien civilization with them. The "jump" only happens when the astronaut is alone and they all, invariably, come back either dead or catatonic. Sometimes the jump doesn't happen at all... |
| 117 | * In ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'', the subtle knife is an ancient weapon that can cut through anything, including the fabric between dimensions. However, it has the unfortunate effect of [[spoiler:creating a soul-eating monster every time it is used, and eventually weakening the equilibrium of the universe]]. |
| 118 | * ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy'': |
| 119 | ** The starship ''Heart of Gold'' features the infinite improbability drive that enables improbability manipulation up to a point where the ship exists everywhere at once and can drop out anywhere instantly--universe wide teleportation. The hitch is that nobody knows ''how'' the improbability drive really works, some smartass junior scientist just figured out one day that all he needed to know was how improbable it was for that drive to come into existence and ''voila'', [[JustAddWater instant]] Black Box. Then he got lynched by his fellow scientists for being a smartarse. |
| 120 | ** The starship ''Bistromath'' works on a similar principle. In restaurants math works differently than anywhere else in the universe. This is why you can never correctly guess what the bill will be, what a proper tip is, how much each person at the table should owe, etc. Nobody knows why this is, or how it works (the attempt to understand it led to a generation of brilliant mathematicians dying of obesity and heart disease), but that doesn't stop them from building a spaceship modeled on a small Italian Bistro to take advantage of this fact and break several laws of physics. |
| 121 | * ''Literature/IntoTheLookingGlass'' has a device about the size of a pack of cards that does "interesting" things with spacetime. It was given to them by the friendly aliens at the end of the first book, who had found it on some other planet and had no idea what it was for. Although they did warn that one should ''not'' apply a "significant voltage" to it. Hooking up a double-A battery leaves a 10-mile crater. A car battery destroys the (deliberately uninhabited and unimportant) planet. Three-phase current erases the solar system. [[spoiler:They eventually figure out how to turn it into a [[FasterThanLightTravel warp drive]] and use it to power the ASS ''Vorpal Blade''. Turns out hooking it up to a car battery was using it wrong.]] |
| 122 | %%* Colson Whitehead's ''The Intuitionist''. The main MacGuffin in the story is known as the Black Box. |
| 123 | * In ''Literature/TheLeagueOfPeoplesVerse'', the Technocracy has pretty much no idea about how most of its own technology works, as the majority of it was just handed to humanity by {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s. |
| 124 | * The ''Literature/LegacyOfTheAldenata'' series features the alien Posleen (or "people of the ships" in their language), who are similar to the Covenant in Halo in that they use technology they understand poorly if at all. One of their commanders stares in confusion at a computer helpfully informing him "Incoming ballistic projectiles. Impact in 10 seconds. Five.... etc" The views of their society in the initial books of the series are vague for the most part but imply that they only really use the systems that kill things or are almost entirely automated. A literal black box used by the humans in the same series appears in the form of the AID which is a black memory plastic box about the size of a pack of cigarettes with an extremely potent AI embedded in it. They act as a UniversalTranslator as well, but are provided by another species and the humans haven't a clue how they really work or how to make them. [[spoiler:This turns out to be a serious problem for a number of reasons.]] |
| 125 | * Willis Linsay's stepper boxes in ''Literature/TheLongEarth'', which enable people to step from one world to another in an endless chain of parallel universes. They are cheap, easy to build using basic electronic components and powered by a potato. And nobody can figure out how they work. Linsay's daughter is a natural stepper, but since nobody knows how ''that'' works either, it's not clear how it helped him invent the box. |
| 126 | * In ''Literature/ALordFromPlanetEarth'', many Seeder artifacts are found, replicated, and used, but the principle of their function remains unknown. [[spoiler:This is intentional, as the Seeders are, in fact, 22nd-century humans, using TimeTravel to [[{{Panspermia}} seed the galaxy with humanoid life]] in order to create an instant (from their viewpoint) army in a war. The artifacts were left behind intentionally to help guide their development.]] |
| 127 | * The ''Literature/MachineOfDeath'' is a device that takes a person's blood sample and predicts how that person will die. It's cheap to use and possible to duplicate, but no one knows how it works. |
| 128 | * In ''Literature/RainbowsEnd'', pretty much all engineering is done by putting together modular black boxes whose contents are unknown, except to the companies that manufacture them. This is done to protect copyrights and trade secrets. Plus, it's ''supposed'' to make things simpler. At one point, Robert Gu gets frustrated, and tries to open a black box under the hood of a car, using a cutting laser. The result is an explosion. |
| 129 | * ''Literature/{{Redshirts}}'' has the Box, a microwave-shaped device that if given a sample of any xenobiological problem, will go 'ding' and provide the solution when dramatically appropriate. Truly unusual due to the fact that [[spoiler:even the writer for the show doesn't know where it came from, since it never appears in any scene that is filmed. It just appears out of nowhere so that all the miraculous cures needed in the show are possible]]. |
| 130 | * In the ''Literature/RevelationSpaceSeries'' novels, everyone uses a certain kind of stardrive, but only the makers know how they work, and fiddling leads to an enormous explosion. The most powerful weapons are barely understood gifts from {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s [[spoiler:or future humans who will send the blueprints back in time]]. Judging by one character's vague discription of the internal conditions in a stardrive in "Weather", the Conjoiners kept the stardrive technology Black Box so that the 'retarded' (everyone else) wouldn't try and weaponise it. [[spoiler:And also because of the whole disembodied-brain thing...]] |
| 131 | %%* ''Literature/RoadsidePicnic'' as well as the Game of the Book ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}]'' (but oddly enough, not the movie) have a Danger Zone full of Black Box alien artifacts as the catalyst for the plot. |
| 132 | * In the spy thriller ''Running Blind'' by Desmond Bagley, the MacGuffin is a piece of technology couriered by the protagonist who is being chased by Soviet agents. At one point he gets a tech-savvy friend to examine it, who's ends up completely baffled as to what it does. At the end of the novel he discovers that the Soviets were supposed to capture it and waste time and money trying to figure out what it does, which is absolutely nothing. |
| 133 | * In the ''Literature/SpiralArm'' series, much of the technology humanity uses is no longer understood, and in fact believed to be so far beyond human understanding that it could only have been crafted by Gods. A distinction is explicitly drawn between "science" and "engineering". "Science", the understanding of how technologies work, is considered religiously mystical and beyond human understanding; the most that men can aspire to is "engineering", creating working reproductions of existing technology. |
| 134 | * In ''Literature/TheStarsAreColdToys'', the rat-like Alari outfit a human Buran shuttle with plasma engines for the mission. When the protagonist asks the shuttle's commander if it's possible to study and replicate this tech on Earth, the commander grimly replies that it is... in about a hundred years. Despite this, even this addition is a strict violation of the Conclave's rule prohibiting Weaker races from sharing technology. |
| 135 | * In ''Literature/TheSunEater'', even if the Solan Empire wanted to recreate the reality-warping StarKilling weapons of the ancient Mericanii A.I., they can't and these have since become LostTechnology owned by the immortal FallenHero Kharn Sagara. That's because when these weapons were made, the Mericanii A.I. had upgraded themselves into being MechanicalAbomination intelligences and were on the cusp [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence of ascending]] into becoming CosmicEntities until they were destroyed by the GodEmperor. Even the brightest genetically-engineered humans can't fully understand them. |
| 136 | * In ''Literature/SuperMinion'', Tofu relies heavily on a program called human.exe which basically allows him to be as smart as a human. However, he has no idea how the program works, it shuts down if he tries to check its source code, and he doesn't even know where he downloaded it from. |
| 137 | * In ''Literature/TheThran'', the whole Thran Empire relies on powerstones as their source of energy, but even the engineers who work on them don't exactly know how they work. |
| 138 | * ''Literature/TheThreeWorldsCycle'': In the ''Well of Echoes'' quartet, the clankers draw energy from nodes. No one knows why it works, but there are some illegal books that speculate on these topics. This becomes a major problem when [[spoiler:nodes start to fail, because the humans depend upon clankers to fend off the lyrinx that have been killing the human race]]. |
| 139 | * ''Literature/TroyRising'': Gravplates are cheap, ubiquiutous, and pivotal to most space travel. Everyone in the galaxy knows how to make them -- but the only way to make them requires using gravplates, and nobody knows who the heck made the first one, or ''how''. |
| 140 | * In the ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' series, all of the alien species in Galactic civilization are happy to use technology they don't understand and can't repair, so long as it comes with the blessing of the Great Library passed down by their revered ancestors and ''somebody'', somewhere, knows how to repair or replace it. The exception is Humanity, who know darn well that relying on such tech will make them economically dependent on other species. They try to use their own (comparatively very primitive) tech while struggling to learn how alien devices work. Occasionally, Humans even benefit from RockBeatsLaser. However, even Earthclan has to rely on Black Box technology for certain things -- i.e., reality shields, psi shields, hyperspace, and the Library itself. |
| 141 | * ''Literature/VariableStar'' has a living black box in the form of Relativists. These are men and women who can coax a ship's engines to accelerate to relativistic speed apparently by [[ContemplateOurNavels Contemplating Their Navels]]. The Relativists think up a number of poetic descriptions of what they do all day to keep the engines going, but in the end, they admit that even they aren't really sure how they're doing it. |
| 142 | * In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', there are the ''ter'angreal'' (magical items), the secret of whose making has been [[LostTechnology lost]] for three thousand years. The Aes Sedai keep plenty of ''ter'angreal'' around for use as black boxes without understanding how they work, and many more items where they don't even know what they ''do''. |
| 143 | * In ''Literature/You2013'', all of Black Arts's games are based on the WAFFLE engine, but no one at the company really understands how it works. The narration directly refers to it as a "black box" at one point. |
| 144 | [[/folder]] |
| 145 | |
| 146 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 147 | * ''Series/BabylonFive'' has a variety of Black Boxes, mostly leftover [[{{Precursors}} First One]] technology: |
| 148 | ** Nobody knows who built the first jumpgates or what principle they operate on, and every spacefaring race in the universe simply produces replicas thereof without understanding how they work. |
| 149 | ** Shadow devices that allow for remote control of ships. Like Sheridan says, the younger races don't understand them and can't build them, but are sure willing to use them. |
| 150 | %%** The machine that transfers life force from one person to another, first featured in the first season episode ''Quality of Mercy'' and turning up again in a few later episodes. |
| 151 | %%** In the TV film ''Thirdspace'', they find a large [[BigDumbObject object]] adrift in Hyperspace, covered in Vorlon writing. Naturally, they stick a power cell onto it, [[SealedEvilInACan which turns out not to have been their brightest idea ever.]] |
| 152 | * In ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', it's eventually revealed [[spoiler:after the destruction of the Resurrection Hub]] that the "Significant Seven" Cylons don't understand how the resurrection process they use actually works, and so [[spoiler:they can't reconstruct it after it's gone. Only the Final Five have the knowledge necessary to recreate the technology, since they designed it in the first place]]. |
| 153 | * ''Series/{{Caprica}}'' has New Cap City. In effect, it is a virtual reality MMORPG located on their version of the Dark Net. It is an enormous city that doesn't seem to end, and nearly everything is trying to kill you. Most people use it like GTA, while teenagers use it to engage in orgies and drug use without harm, although a few are devoted to unlocking its mysteries. The one rule to play is that you only get one life, and are immediately and permanently locked out if you die. Its origins, and the reasons for its existence, are a complete mystery to everyone. Even the creator of the V-World technology has no idea who built it or why. The hardcore gamers all insist that there must be some reason or point to it, and are obsessed with the idea of "beating" the game, even though it doesn't seem to work that way. Eventually the point is rendered moot when the protagonist reshapes the whole world into a forest fantasy kingdom full of dragons. Really. |
| 154 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E11TurnLeft Turn Left]]", the TARDIS serves this role. [[spoiler:The episode is set in a {{crapsack|World}} timeline where the Doctor died for real because he never met Donna Noble. Later on, after the world has gone to hell and TheStarsAreGoingOut, a universe-hopping Rose Tyler and UNIT use the recovered TARDIS to power a makeshift time machine to send Donna back to change the past and SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. Rose admits to Donna that they don't have any idea how the TARDIS actually works, but she gets Donna to when in the past she needs to be -- but not where, almost ruining the whole operation.]] |
| 155 | * {{Invoked|Trope}} in ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. When Harold Finch and his partner Nathan Ingram created the Machine, they made sure its workings were inaccessible to the government, claiming that this was LoopholeAbuse -- the Machine takes in raw electronic surveillance data and spits out a person's social security number to lead the user to a threat, but as long as the government doesn't see the data, then no one's constitutional rights are being violated. No one believes that this will hold water should the Machine be exposed, however, and the actual reason why is the Machine is [[NoManShouldHaveThisPower too powerful for any person to have access]], and so Finch encrypts it so heavily that even he will never be able to access it again. |
| 156 | * ''Franchise/PowerRangers'': A literal black box is used as a plot point in the season finale of ''[[Series/PowerRangersTurbo Turbo]]'', and in the third episode of ''[[Series/PowerRangersInSpace In Space]]''; nothing is mentioned about the technology inside of it (possibly to avoid {{Technobabble}} or add some mystery to it), but it is stated that it contains codes to allow the [[CoolStarship Astro Megaship]] to transform into the [[HumongousMecha Astro Megazord]]. |
| 157 | %%** ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'' features the "Black Box", an unfinished device from the very first Red Samurai Ranger; Antonio completes it and unlocks [[SuperMode Super Samurai]] mode. |
| 158 | * ''Franchise/StargateVerse'': |
| 159 | ** The titular Stargate itself is a black box. It was built by the Ancients. They have figured out how to hook computers and power up to it and send signals to it. However, the Stargate itself is way beyond Earth human tech (though not beyond Tollan's tech, who do manage to manufacture their own), though that might have been because they had the help of the Asgard, who knew the Ancients and know the gate system as well as anyone bar the Ancients themselves. When summing up the Tollan just before they go to their new planet, Daniel says, "They're smarter than us." and then, after seeing the new gate, ruefully mutters, "Much, ''much'' smarter than us." |
| 160 | ** ''Series/StargateSG1'' often adapts lesser versions of the technology the crew encounters from other planets. "It doesn't quite work like the original" is commonly stated. However, they're far more aware than most Black Box users of the potential for unexpected side effects.In fact, nearly every piece of technology they pick up is mentioned to be sent off to Area 51, either in the episode where it's introduced, or when they decide to use it again. This leads to situations that look like ForgottenPhlebotinum, until two or three years down the line where the device pops up again. Except for anything that comes with a trigger (Zat guns, anyone?) which is usually put into active service immediately. Which should come as a surprise to nobody, since military usage (including stuff that makes an EarthShatteringKaboom) is usually the first application mankind can think off for any given tech. Naquadria bombs, anyone? Which makes sense in a way, as acquiring weapons to defend Earth is the SGC's first mission. |
| 161 | ** In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' and ''Series/StargateUniverse'', the protagonists uncover treasure troves of Ancient and alien technology. Though they know how to operate the Ancient technology they find (most of the time), they don't know their exact inner workings. The Goa'uld, on the other hand, make very little effort to study the Ancient technology they use. They've based their empire on things like the Stargates and ring transporters, but they really have no idea how any of it works. |
| 162 | *** There are, however, exceptions to the rule. The biggest of them is [[EmperorScientist Ba'al]], a System Lord who knows more than any other Goa'uld (or human) how the gates work (with the possible exception of Anubis). When one human scientist figures out how to infect a gate with a virus that locks it down, Ba'al quickly reverse-engineers the virus and modifies it to infect the entire gate network. Later on, they require Ba'al's help to help with some gate coding, and he's able to use portable human computers just fine (it helps that he has spent some time on Earth as a corporate CEO). |
| 163 | ** At one point, the Tollan offer Earth one of their ion cannons that can one-shot a Goa'uld Ha'tak mothership. However, after studying the schematics, Carter explains that there's no way Earth's science can build the cannons in at least decades (possibly centuries). There's also the fact that Tollan tech lacks any mechanical parts, wires, or anything else a human scientist or engineer might recognize. They habitually use [[{{Intangibility}} phasing tech]] to walk through walls, whereas only one Ancient scientist was able to make something similar (and kept it a secret). The Tau'ri are better at reverse-engineering actual alien technology than technology of fellow humans. |
| 164 | * In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Data's positronic brain that makes him a {{Ridiculously Human Robot|s}} is a bit of an unknown factor. While Starfleet has a pretty good idea of how it is supposed to work, along with the rest of his body functions, how he is sentient is a complete mystery to them, especially since the genius inventor who built him is dead. While Data can be dismantled in general pieces, they are reluctant to really dive into the fine mechanics of his brain and his memory centers -- after a particularly overzealous researcher [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman takes the issue to court]] in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E9TheMeasureOfAMan The Measure of a Man]]", Data gains the legal right to refuse such a dismantling anyway. His own attempt to replicate the technology seems to succeed when he builds a "daughter", Lal, in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E16TheOffspring The Offspring]]", but he ends up proving the problem as [[MySkullRunnethOver her mental capacities increase exponentially until the system collapses]]. Also, the risk of creating another Lore (Data's [[FlawedPrototype dangerously violent older brother]]) highlights [[AIIsACrapshoot the risks of succeeding at building a stable brain]]. |
| 165 | ** In ''Series/StarTrekPicard'', we learn that Bruce Maddox (who's been communicating with Data in order to figure out how to make more androids) was forced by Starfleet to develop the [=A500=] series of androids. They were inferior to Data but were able to perform manual labor at the Utopia Planitia shipyards. Then they suddenly turned on their masters and destroyed the shipyards. The attack left tens of thousands dead and ignited the Martian atmosphere. Subsequently, a ban on synths was instituted. [[spoiler:Maddox and Altan Inigo Soong, Data's creator's biological son, formed a small colony on Coppelius and began to use a radical new method to extrapolate Data's mind left in B4 into his "children." Some shared Data's gold complexion, while newer models were designed to pass for humans and even fool scans. After the events of season 1, the synth ban was lifted, and Coppelians were offered Federation membership. At the same time, Soong was also working on a special synth that could be used to transfer his consciousness into in order to cheat death. Agnes Jurati helped him perfect the synth and the mind transfer procedure. However, they ended up having to use the synth to save Picard, whose biological body was dying. Afterwards, Soong spent the rest of his (short) life working at a Section 31 facility on a new android that would combine Data, Lore, B4, and Lal.]] |
| 166 | [[/folder]] |
| 167 | |
| 168 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 169 | * A fair bit of LostTechnology in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' is considered black-box level of complexity, usable by the Inner Sphere but completely beyond their understanding in regards to ''how'' it worked due to [[ForeverWar 300 years of total war]] destroying means of production and conspiracies to assassinate scientists. This includes things like DropShip and [[FasterThanLightTravel Jumpship]] construction technology (described as fully automated and unable to be built), human myomer implantation (with horrific results if it fails for reasons unknown), and faster-than-light 'secret transmission' technology, which sends faxes across the stars. One of the most famed in-universe black boxes was the New Avalon Valkyrie factory, a fully-automated facility that kept producing brand new, function Battlemechs for centuries after it was turned on: raw materials went in one end, Valkyries came out the other. The New Avalon Institute of Science wanted to try taking the factory apart to see if they could replicate it or switch it over to produce a more powerful Battlemech, but fears that they wouldn't be able to put it back together afterword kept them from doing so. As the [[ApocalypseNot timeline has progressed, however]], there have been some gains in the understanding of such technology. |
| 170 | * Quoth the ''TabletopGame/BlissStage: Ignition Stage'' rulebook: "In the center of every [=ANIMa=] creche lies a scavenged piece of an alien's brain. It's possible that this is the only thing that an [=ANIMa=] requires to function, and that the rest of the machine is there to inspire more confidence on the part of the pilots." |
| 171 | * Justified in ''TabletopGame/CthulhuTech''. Since the [[{{Magitek}} Dimensional Engine]] runs on non-Euclidean mathematics, attempting to find out what goes on inside one will [[GoMadFromTheRevelation cause weak minds to break]]. |
| 172 | * Mad Science in ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'': A MadScientist may create fantastic devices that surpass anything "regular" science is able to produce, but it's impossible to mass-produce Mad Science gizmoes -- they just don't work. Throughout the centuries, Mad Science gains or loses popularity, depending on the shifting popular opinion. [[spoiler:Mad Science is partly magical, the ideas for it coming from Manitous, malevolent spirits serving the setting's Big Bads. It is part of a master plot to (eventually) bring about Ghost Rock bombs, nuclear weapons capable of warping or killing spirits of living things, and to transform the entire Earth into a terror-filled wasteland.]] |
| 173 | * The ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' campaign setting ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' has two: |
| 174 | ** Black box magic was used to develop the [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots warforged]] through schemas, which are essentially magical blueprints conveniently left behind by an ancient giant civilization. It turns out (in the ''Secrets of Xen'drik'' supplement) that it was [[spoiler:an attempt by an ancient extradimensional race to escape to our world from the realm of dreams by creating artificial bodies]], though this doesn't explain why modern warforged are fully sentient and appear to have souls (it does explain why the bodies can easily contain souls, but considering [[spoiler:the aforementioned extradimensional race is active on another continent and using specially bred mostly-humans for on-demand possession]] exactly where their souls are coming from is another question...). |
| 175 | ** In a sort of meta-example, divine magic (the sort of magic used by Cleric spells) in Eberron works on a "clap your hands if you believe" basis. Unlike in other settings, even high-level Clerics cannot communicate directly with their gods; when they try to do so, at best they get an entity that claims to be a high-level servant of the god rather than the god itself. The setting is ''extremely'' coy with respect to whether or not any gods actually exist, and if so, ''which ones''. Even the beings reached with, say, a ''commune'' spell will, if pressed, hang a lampshade on this, saying of ''course'' they haven't ''personally'' seen or talked to the gods, but they ''must'' exist, because praying to them works, doesn't it? Divine magic works even for the Clerics of one particular cult who ''know for a fact'' that their god does not exist (yet), because they're working on ''building'' it. |
| 176 | * In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' itself (regardless of campaign setting), artifacts are typically this. Regular magic items can typically be made by spellcasters fairly reliably, depending on the power of the item. Artifacts, on the other hand, generally greatly exceed the power of other magic items and are not something that modern wizards and clerics (especially those who are player characters) can build anymore. Typically, they were crafted by or at least with the aid of a god or some other being of phenomenal power, or a highly advanced {{precursor}} civilization (which may have been human or dwarven or elven, or it might have been from some weird species of sapient frogs or dragons or whatever that's no longer around anymore) that had much more advanced knowledge of how magic worked than anyone living does. The [[TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}} Suel Empire]] and [[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Netherill Empire]] are both known for the powerful artifacts that modern spellcasters might figure out how to use the basic functions of if they study them long enough, but can't come close to reproducing them and generally have no idea of their true capabilities. |
| 177 | * Subverted in ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}''. Many of the great and wondrous artifacts ''can'' be understood... it's just that most of the great designers would have been among the Solar Exalted, who were murdered and had their Exaltations sealed away so they couldn't reincarnate. It doesn't help that the Solars specifically designed many artifacts to only function for Solars... because they never imagined there would be a time when they weren't around. In theory, any Celestial Exalt (or Terrestrial of sufficient age and experience) could bring themselves to understand the complex workings of Solar artifice. The problem is that reaching that level of excellence is much harder for non-Solars, they can't achieve nearly the same level of speed, and besides they've been [[{{Gotterdammerung}} a bit]] [[ApocalypseHow distracted]] [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt since]] [[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed then.]] |
| 178 | * [[WeirdScience Wonders]] in ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression'' work in a similar way to Deadlands: [[MadScientist Geniuses]] can build devices that [[InsistentTerminology delicately bend]] the laws of physics, usually with a [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve crackpot theory]] given legitimacy by [[MagicPoweredPseudoscience the light of Inspiration]]. For many years, various Geniuses have tried to find out the secrets behind Inspiration, with little success. |
| 179 | * The titular ''TabletopGame/{{Numenera}}'' are devices that for a number of reasons got enough RagnarokProofing to function thousands or even millions of years after having been created and the civilizations that made them fell... but not only are they so advanced that the setting treats them like magic, but they also didn't have ''enough'' RagnarokProofing to survive being used more than once after being unearthed--and because of said civilizations falling so long ago, the full knowledge of what they can do (let alone how to repair them) just doesn't exist anymore. |
| 180 | * ''TabletopGame/Space1889'': There are plenty of such phenomena where you know the input and the output but how no idea how it is achieved. It is not only the fictional Martian left-over technology from long ago but plenty of things we now know how it works that were a mystery to historical Victorians. For instance the sun seems to send out a lot of energy from nowhere, much more than any known type of fuel could possibly sustain for more very long -- leading some people to believe the solar system cannot be more than a few thousands year old. You seem to inherit traits from your parents, but having no idea of DNA, the mechanism for this is a mystery to Victorians who sometimes think it is somehow literally "in the blood" or "with the mother's milk," but that makes it hard to explain how plants can inherit traits. |
| 181 | * Inspired Science from ''TabletopGame/TrinityUniverseWhiteWolf'' is developed through means that humans can't replicate. Anyone can use it, but making more requires the inventor to be present (unless it's noetic biotech), and any attempt to explain the science of ''how'' it works to an un-Inspired mind comes across as complete nonsense. |
| 182 | * ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': |
| 183 | ** The modern Imperium of Man is a borderline ScavengerWorld that has lost a great deal of technological knowledge over the millennia, and as a result many of the devices lovingly maintained by the rituals of the [[MachineCult Adeptus Mechanicus]] are irreplaceable ancient relics. One example would be the Gauntlets of Ultramar, a paired set of {{power fist}}s with integrated boltguns that is a treasured relic of the Ultramarines chapter of Space Marines. The Adeptus Mechanicus would love to study the Gauntlets, but since that would mean disassembling and possibly forgetting how to reassemble the weapons, the Ultramarines have "declined" the Mechanicus' requests to examine them, emphatically and repeatedly. |
| 184 | ** The "gene-seed" that transforms a normal human into a Space Marine is derived from the genetic material of the twenty Primarchs, who were created by the Emperor of Mankind to lead his Great Crusade to reconquer the galaxy. Since the Emperor is currently [[DarkLordOnLifeSupport a skeletal husk sustained by the Golden Throne]], and the Primarchs are all either dead, lost, fallen to Chaos, or otherwise in no condition to contribute, it's impossible to create "fresh" gene-seed. Instead, each Space Marine sports a pair of "progenoid" organs that can grow germ forms of all the other implants, which are cultivated by a chapter's Apothecaries to use in the next generation of recruits. This means one of an Apothecary's most important duties is securing the corpses of fallen battle-brothers and extracting those progenoid glands before they are lost to the enemy, and Space Marine chapters who run low on gene-seed, through battlefield losses or mutation, are in danger of dying out entirely. |
| 185 | ** A nonhuman example would be the Blackstone Fortresses of the [[TabletopGame/BattlefleetGothic Gothic Sector]], a sextet of ancient space structures that were appropriated by the Imperium. The [=AdMech=] were able to patch into the stations' power systems and hook up their own weapons and life-support, but nobody was sure of the things' function... until [[GalacticConqueror Abaddon the Despoiler]] showed up with some artifacts of his own and fully activated the Blackstone Fortresses, deploying guns that tore holes in space-time and could make suns go nova. Turns out they were created by the Eldar's forge gods as a means to harness Warp energy to destroy the C'tan. |
| 186 | [[/folder]] |
| 187 | |
| 188 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 189 | * ''Franchise/DotHack'': CC Corp's ''The World'', the MMORPG that serves as the setting of the series, is basically Black Box: The Game. ''The World'' is actually an updated version of ''Fragment'', a game that CC Corp did not develop but simply acquired from a German programmer called Harald Hoerwick who sold it to the company for absolutely nothing. Hoerwick based the game on the epic poem Epitaph of Twilight by Emma Wielant. After Emma's tragic death in a car accident, Hoerwick became obsessed with immortalizing her work as well as his love for her through ''Fragment''. The general public knows nothing about this, and even among CC Corp, very little is know about how the game actually functions. To top it all, only a handful of programmers of the company are aware of the existence of a black box inside ''Fragment'' and how any attempt to decipher it ended in failure. When ''Fragment'' was updated to the retail version of ''The World'', the Black Box remained in the game's code. [[spoiler:It was later discovered that the Black Box was actually a womb for a new breed of Artificial Intelligence, and was designed to create an "Ultimate A.I." based on the personality data of the players of ''The World''. Along with this, Hoerwick created a program called Morganna that would act like a caretaker and oversee the birth of the Ultimate A.I. Problems arise when Morganna realized that once the A.I was born, she would have no purpose left. [[AIIsACrapshoot Unable to process this]], she attempted to stall the growth of the A.I indefinitely, resulting in many of the events in the series.]] |
| 190 | * ''VideoGame/{{Afterimage}}'': Among the three artifacts stored in the Grand Archives of the Holy Grounds, the Primeval Orb is considered the strongest (allowing humans to see a projection of the Sea of Souls), but it is also the "most mysterious", not even the Mastermage Levine can understand its material composition. One InUniverse speculation from the mastermages claim that it might be an instrument made by God. |
| 191 | %%* Much of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun'' revolves around recovery, possession and use of the Tacitus, a black box-type artifact misplaced by the {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s. |
| 192 | * ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'': [[CoolBike Cavaliere]] is one. Nico's report mentions that she can't figure out how it works, and even Dante has no idea how he put it together. |
| 193 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'', whale oil is an incredibly efficient source of fuel, but no one really knows why this is the case. When Emily was asked how whale oil works during her lessons, she responded that it's a trick question, since nobody knows the answer. The Heart claims that the whales are [[AWizardDidIt actually supernatural beings]]. |
| 194 | * ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'': When 3D Realms sought to make a sequel to their ''VideoGame/DukeNukem'' sidescrolling games, they shopped around for someone who could make a convincing pseudo-3D engine. Teenaged Ken Silverman sent in his hobby demo, which would later become the infamous BUILD engine, and got the job. He sent 3D Realms the executable file and a bevy of documentation to explain how to make levels with it, and let them build the actual game and its assets without knowing how it works internally. Turns out 3D Realms didn't know how good they had it: the code was eventually open sourced, and internet code analyst/Google software wizard Fabien Sanglard dove into it, only to find it one of the most dense, most obtuse, most esoteric pieces of code ever committed to computer memory. It was very obviously not meant to be intelligible to anyone whose name isn't Ken Silverman. Read all the gory details [[http://fabiensanglard.net/duke3d/ here]] (tellingly, Sanglard had to have Ken Silverman proofread/explain parts of the article). |
| 195 | * ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'': |
| 196 | ** Not only is Toady One ''very'' protective of the source code behind his masterwork, but his software development skills are almost entirely self-taught. The handful of people who have been entrusted with backup copies of it have attested that the code is almost impenetrable to mere mortals. |
| 197 | ** Really, this can apply to just about anything a player creates in the game. Fortresses can get so elaborate that critical functions are simply forgotten or change completely as they are built upon; this ''especially'' applies to {{Succession Game}}s, since players tend to not use the in-game labelling function. Many a fortress has run into [[NonIndicativeName fun]] because the guy running it forgets which lever opens the door to the mess hall and which one [[KillItWithFire activates the fortress' lava-based self-destruct]]. A truly stand-out example has to be where one LetsPlay ended up creating a fortress so convoluted that one room ended up becoming its own PocketDimension. (Not literally -- but for some reason, no player was ever able to locate that room unless they zoomed in on a dwarf who was already inside it.) |
| 198 | * ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'': Dwarven technology is almost always a Black Box of some kind whenever anyone in the game has to use it to accomplish a task. The most common example is "Dwarven metal", which is a unique alloy that resembles bronze but never dulls or corrodes. Nobody by the time the game takes place knows how to create it since the Dwemer have vanished, so smelting it essentially involves recycling pieces of their scrap metal. |
| 199 | * ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'': |
| 200 | ** In ''VideoGame/DirgeOfCerberus: VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', no one knows how the power source of the airships works. |
| 201 | ** For a society almost solely based off of using technology, it turns out the Al Bhed of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' don't actually know how machina work. Averted by the end of ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2 X-2]]'', as the Machine Faction's quest is to innovate rather than rebuild. |
| 202 | * ''VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations'': |
| 203 | ** Random events might result in your gaining a {{Precursor|s}} ship or two, which tend to be ''far'' stronger than anything you have for much of the game. You can't reverse-engineer the tech, but, by the end-game, you can build ships that are ''better''. |
| 204 | ** According to the [[AllThereInTheManual manual]], the Arceans intended humans to fall into this trap when making FirstContact via a sublight probe. They transmitted the plans for building a [[PortalNetwork hyperspace gate]], deliberately modified by them to prevent humans from shutting the gate off, allowing the Arceans to invade Earth. Subverted, in that the humans said "hell no" and started trying to reverse-engineer the thing and figure out a way to make it better. They succeed by virtue of having developed fusion power and being able to minimize a "gate" into a portable hyperdrive. Then some idiot decides to send the plans to everyone else. |
| 205 | * In ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', much of [[{{Precursors}} Forerunner]] technology is still considered this by the galaxy's current races, despite their best efforts to reverse-engineer it: |
| 206 | ** Not only is almost all of Covenant's technology reverse-engineered from Forerunner relics, but a good percentage of their equipment is directly constructed by prehistoric Forerunner machinery, and some high-end Covenant ships even have Forerunner components directly installed. However, due to the Covenant worshipping the Forerunners as gods, even just trying to better understand Forerunner technology runs the risk of being seen as heresy. For this reason, the Covenant do not use even their own knock-off technology very efficiently, much less the Forerunner originals. |
| 207 | ** Proper Forerunner technology is still largely a mystery to humans, despite the occasional reverse-engineering success. For example, humanity's post-war flagship ''Infinity'' has several Forerunner components installed, including its slipspace drive. However, not even the ship's chief scientist quite understands how said components actually work. |
| 208 | ** In ''[[VideoGame/Halo4 Spartan Ops]]'', one frustrated human scientist describes the current state of his species' research on Forerunner technology as such: |
| 209 | --->"We're turning on dormant technology we don't know the first thing about! We're like ''monkeys'', hammering on a nuclear bomb because we like the sound it makes!" |
| 210 | * ''VideoGame/{{Hellsinker}}'': Deadliar's previous nickname was Blackbox in true spirit of this this trope since no one had any idea how he operated and produced the results he did. |
| 211 | * ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' plays around with this trope. |
| 212 | ** The [[AllThereInTheManual Historical and Technical Briefing]] describes the discovery of a large amount of LostTechnology in the wreck of an ancient spacecraft, including something eventually identified as "a solid-state hyperspace induction module." It's implied that much of their limited understanding of how it actually works was gained from building a couple of scaled-down copies and fitting them to small spacecraft, pressing the "on" button and watching to see what happened. |
| 213 | ** Then it turned out that said module is actually a 10,000-year old Progenitor; only three of them exist in the whole galaxy. One of these are in the posession of the Bentusi and it's the basis of all hyperdrives in the galaxy, save the Kushan ones. It is also said that no matter how much they study them, they can't figure out why the reverse-engineered versions are much slower than the originals even though they know how to make other ships tag along by "riding the quantum wavefront." In fact, combining the three Far Jumpers will ''break the laws of physics'' (black holes disable hyperdrives yet the Trinity still works flawlessly). |
| 214 | ** The semi-canonical ExpansionPack ''Cataclysm'' has a fourth hyperspace core, whose capabilities are on par with the Progenitor Far Jumpers (except it was built a ''million years ago''), except that it came from another galaxy on an experimental exploration ship called the ''Naggarok''. Besides the extremely-advanced hyperdrive, the ship also has inertialess sublight drives (allowing the massive craft to zip around the battlefield faster than any fighter), extremely-precise long-range ion cannons (able to swat fighters like gnats), and a powerful Phase Disassembler Array that can convert even a dreadnought into energy in a matter of seconds (said energy can then be used to build cruise missiles). While the ship is destroyed in the FinalBattle of the game, the tech inside it likely fits this trope. |
| 215 | ** In the ''VideoGame/HomeworldDesertsOfKharak'' prequel, we learn that the nomadic Gaalsien were able to reverse-engineer some of the tech from ships that crashed in the Kharakian desert (thanks to interference thrown up by the Far Jumper on the planet). This allows their vehicles to hover, whereas the Northern Coalition utilizes traditional treads and wheels for locomotion. |
| 216 | %%* Epitaphs in ''VideoGame/InfiniteSpace''. They're more-or-less useless one-foot-square rust-red and slime-green cubes, but if you can figure out what they do, you get rewarded with [[RealityWarper the power to alter the universe.]] |
| 217 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'': |
| 218 | ** The Citadel and mass relays are thought to be built by the Protheans. Humans and other races use them, though their inner workings and construction are poorly understood, and any attempt ''to'' understand them is regarded as an exercise in futility. [[spoiler:It turns out that a race of AbusivePrecursors, the Reapers, were the real builders of these wonders, and the Protheans were just barely figuring out the technology themselves when they were wiped out.]] |
| 219 | ** [[CoolOldLady Matriarch Aethyta]] very much dislikes the black box nature of the relays and once proposed trying to study relays more intimately, maybe even building one. As she puts it, the other Matriarchs "laughed the blue off my ass." |
| 220 | ** The design of their conventional FasterThanLightTravel system is much the same, being almost entirely reverse-engineered from the Protheans. This means that they have no idea how to disengage certain safety protocols that prevent ships from being flown into planets or other vessels at relativistic velocities. While this is generally a good thing, [[spoiler:it prevents the military from using this tactic against the Reapers]]. |
| 221 | ** [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 The third game]] kicks this up with [[spoiler:the Crucible, a [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture light flung into the future]] so many times that barely anyone who tried to build it understood what it was or what it did. Not even the Protheans were sure how it even ''operated,'' and they nearly finished the damn thing before the Reapers completed their invasion. It's hammered home numerous times through the game that it could do damn near anything because while there are easily understandable blueprints for it, there's no data on how to use it or what it does. At one point Commander Shepard likens the situation to a child playing with his father's gun. It turns out to be little more than a giant power source used to brute-force hack the Citadel and Relay network to either destroy or control all Reapers. It can alternatively forcibly convert all organic and machine life into cyborgs if certain conditions are met, but this was apparently not an intentional part of the design]]. |
| 222 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' has a similar situation with the Remnant Vaults. The Andromeda Initiative finds out pretty quickly that the Vaults are able to terraform entire planets, which is very good because the planets they had intended to settle had been environmentally ruined by [[NegativeSpaceWedgie the Scourge]]. But nobody has a clue ''how'' any of the Remnant technology actually works, and the dangers of relying on it are pointed out. |
| 223 | * ''Franchise/MegaMan'': |
| 224 | ** The titular robot of ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' was the last and greatest creation of Dr. Light, who then had X put through 30 years of ethical testing to ensure that he wouldn't misuse his "limitless" power. When Dr. Cain discovered X and studied the robot, he admitted that some of X's systems were "black boxes" he couldn't understand, but did his best to reproduce X's design. The result was the Reploids, a generation of robots more advanced than anything previous, but the fact that they were all imperfect copies of Light's design led to the Maverick uprisings. It wouldn't be until the time of ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' that a fully successful replication of X's systems would be completed by [[TeenGenius Ciel]]; unfortunately for everyone, Copy X ''didn't'' get the "30 years of ethical testing" and turned into a powerful KnightTemplar that only Zero had a chance of defeating. Even then, Zero is convinced that the original was still more powerful than Copy X. Dr. Light's design was so far ahead of his time that even centuries later no one managed to fully match it. |
| 225 | ** Later games reveal that Zero, likewise the last and greatest creation of Dr. Wily, has similar black boxes, possibly stolen or copied. Notably, one of Zero's discussions with Dr. Light when obtaining an Armor Part for X in ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX5 X5]]'' has Light's VirtualGhost regrettably inform Zero that he can't enhance Zero's performance in the same way because he knows nothing about Zero's body structure and presumably cannot analyze it. This makes [[MultipleEndings either]] Dr. Cain or the X-Hunters ([[EvilGenius most likely Serges]]) [[BackFromTheDead rebuilding Zero]] in ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX2 X2]]'' and Isoc's heavily implied hand in restoring Zero between ''X5'' and ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX6 X6]]'' (as well as his intricate knowledge of Zero's internal systems) all the more impressive, since it should have been impossible to fully repair Zero, let alone improve upon his original design. Then again, the games hint Serges and Isoc's familiarity with Zero stem from the fact that they ''are'' Wily. |
| 226 | %%* ''VideoGame/MetalMax'': Aside from the world having been wrecked so badly no one even remembers what several machines DO, let alone how to build them (tanks among them -- although The Disassembler seems to know his way around them, but he's insane and only disassembles them, hence the name), there's [[spoiler:the androids Scarlet and Alpha]] in ''Metal Saga'', whom nobody knows how to fix (hence why [[spoiler:if Alpha gets [=KOed=], she can't be revived, and why Scarlet dies after you defeat her -- she's been going without repairs since the Great War that wiped the planet, and her regeneration is pretty much at its limit, she even comments on it being the case]]). |
| 227 | * ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'': |
| 228 | ** Samus Aran's Power Suit has a ton of hidden properties the Chozo didn't have time to teach her about, but fortunately the suit is smart enough to make use of them anyway. Not only that, but the suit is actually capable of adapting non-Chozo technology to upgrade itself when Samus acquires some, which gets really strange when she picks up Luminoth, Space Pirate and ''human'' technology. |
| 229 | ** The ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'' subseries involves the use of Phazon, a blue gooey substance that turns its users [[NighInvulnerability nigh-invulnerable]] and greatly amplifies their weapon strength, at the risk of [[TheCorruption corruption]]. By ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'', the Federation is able to develop a PED Suit that contains a "black box" that allows its wearer to safely utilize Phazon to improve their combat capabilities, but unfortunately Samus' variant gets damaged early in the game. |
| 230 | * The superweapons of the ''VideoGame/NavalOps'' series, especially in ''Warship Gunner 2,'' are considered to be Black Boxes by the people fighting against them. In ''WG 2,'' they run off a Black Box "Engine" strapped into oversized conventional ships (for a given value of conventional). The equipment you can unlock for customizing your own ship is explicitly labeled in game as "Black Box Technology" in the equipment screen, with individual pieces labeled Enigmatech (Enigmatech Bridge, Enigmatech Sensors, etc.). |
| 231 | * The [[PostModernMagik Demon Summoning Program]] in the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series is a monstruously powerful piece of software capable of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin bringing forth demons into the physical world]]. However, when analyzed in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'', the technicians are baffled by the dozens of Black Boxes in its code, and its use is only authorized in the eve of extreme duress. Across the series, a handful of people have been seen to develop some variation upon [[Literature/DigitalDevilStory Akemi Nakajima]]'s original program, but it bears mentioning that aside from Nakajima himself and Stephen, most of these are inhuman entities using and distributing it for their own purposes. Even those two eventually AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence, Nakajima as Izanagi and Stephen as TheDragon for the Goddess of Tokyo. |
| 232 | * No one in the world of ''VideoGame/{{Signalis}}'' really knows how does the Bioresonance work and what is its origin. Despite that, it's widely used for terraforming planets, achieving artifical gravity and creating [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Replikas]]. As one document in the game even states, constant reliance on Bioresonance has led to the stagnation of all conventional tech by almost a ''century''. |
| 233 | * In ''VideoGame/SinsOfASolarEmpire'', the Advent field Phase Inhibitors stolen from the TEC, who use Phase Inhibitors captured from the Vasari... who ''also'' don't know how Phase Inhibitors work, and simply field copies of ones that ''they'' found. |
| 234 | * Most ship and weapon tech in ''VideoGame/{{Starsector}}'' has been lost due to the fact the blueprints had copy protection on them. After the Collapse, the entire sector was isolated from the companies that could manufacture these copy-protected blueprints, so the only source of new ones is through scavenging. Similarly, fighter [=LPCs=] (Limited Production Chips) work by containing the information for a carrier's nanoforges to manufacture fighters without allowing for the copying of the design. |
| 235 | * ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' generally averts this, and you can scan battle wreckage of even {{Precursor|s}} ships to reverse-engineer their components, but until you have end-game science buildings it's going to take a looong time to complete those research projects. Or you can play this trope straight by taking the "Enigmatic Engineering" Ascension Perk, which makes your technological designs sufficiently esoteric that your rivals can't study them -- a good way to keep the unique technology derived from defeating one of the [[OptionalBoss Leviathan]] enemies limited to your forces. |
| 236 | %%* In the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' ExpandedUniverse, there's a character named Rinnosuke who has the power to immediately identify the function of any device he sees. This does not mean that he knows what it's called or how to use it. He was once horrified to recover a "World Controlling Device" capable of causing great destruction, [[MetaphoricallyTrue little realizing]] that he was dealing with a Platform/GameBoy. |
| 237 | * The ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries'' has artifacts, ancient devices that predate the Great Collapse, a disaster of unknown origins 1200 years ago that devastated the world and led to the collapse of society. The Septian Church, the primary religion of the setting, has a policy where they must confiscate an artifact if it is still functioning. They don't apply this to artifacts that have lost their power. The church's justification for this is that because no one knows ''how'' these artifacts work, it's too dangerous to allow an active artifact out in the open. And to be fair, there have been incidents involving artifacts that justify this logic -- for example, pretty much everything after the prologue in ''Sky The 3rd'' is the result of an artifact turning itself on while the people trying to take it to a secure facility don't know what it is or how to turn it back off. |
| 238 | * ''VideoGame/{{X}}'': Played with through the [[PortalNetwork gates]]. While operation is terribly easy -- push a spaceship in one gate, and it'll pop out the other gate in the pair a few seconds later, no matter how far away -- no one in the central interstellar trade system understands anything but the lies-to-children version of how they work. While there are a few scientists capable of repairing damaged gates, no one even thinks about trying replication or reconfiguration, and the irregular outages or changes in the system caused by [[AbusivePrecursors meddling precursors]] is treated like mystery or even legend where it's not just a natural risk of the gates. The species that actually made the system in the first place not only consider it [[TheWorldIsNotReady outside of the range of understanding of the normal races]], they think [[JustForFun/AbusingTheKardashevScaleForFunAndProfit it's impossible for a species to understand without getting a few points higher on the Kardashev scale]]. [[SubvertedTrope Then]] the Terran [[HumansAreSpecial humans get involved]], and not only get the theory down and create a new gate on their own, but also create a Jumpdrive that's a ''separate'' Black Box to everyone else in the setting; when the test ship (the ''Xperimental Shuttle'') gets dumped in the X-Universe by a BlindJump in ''VideoGame/XBeyondTheFrontier'', nobody can repair it; not even the pilot after he establishes a MegaCorp solely to repair it to [[YouCantGoHomeAgain get back home]]. The ship can be re-acquired thirty years later in ''X3: Terran Conflict'', where it's still unknowable and impossible to reverse engineer; presumably, the now [[LostColony reconnected Earth State]] isn't helping the player to reproduce it. |
| 239 | * ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'': [[RobotGirl Poppi]] is an Artificial Blade who is the product of ''three'' generations of brilliant Nopon engineers (Soosoo, Tatazo, and Tora) having created and refined the process, with Tora having actually taken the years of research into the concept plus the experimental [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup and so-far unreproducible]] ether furnace of his grampypon's design into the process of constructing her. As a result, she has many features that not even her designers fully understand, not helped by Tora being such a recluse [[DoAnythingRobot he added many extra features]], and she has the capacity to upgrade even further. |
| 240 | * ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' has Gears, the HumongousMecha of the game. While the setting's current powers are capable of making their own, the best Gears are relics from previous wars between precursor civilizations, leading to an ArchaeologicalArmsRace between the nations of Aveh and Kislev to recover weapons they don't fully understand. Protagonist Fei's Gear, Weltall, is comprised almost entirely of black boxes, something the ''[[GlobalAirship Yggdrasil]]''[='s=] Gear mechanic will comment on. Naturally it's the strongest Gear in the game, and new abilities will come online at seemingly random intervals, [[spoiler:culminating in Weltall transforming into the titular Xenogears, a 100% OrganicTechnology Black Box]]. According to the ''[[WordOfGod Perfect Works]]'' book, [[spoiler:most of the black boxes are either [[MagicAIsMagicA Ether]] amplifiers, or components used in its transformation between Weltall and Weltal-Id-]]. |
| 241 | * ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'': |
| 242 | ** KOS-MOS is an android built by Kevin Winnicot, but when she goes berserk and [[ThanatosGambit murders him]] she has to be rebuilt. Unfortunately, the only way Kevin's successors are capable of creating another KOS-MOS is to simply repair and (attempt to) reprogram the same prototype unit that killed him because [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup he took the plans for her to his grave]]. As a result, the current KOS-MOS is treated like a faulty hand grenade which her development team is loath to admit they have zero control over if push comes to shove. She's laden with black box parts and programs, each with unknown functions, which come online at [[BecauseDestinySaysSo seemingly random intervals]] (like her Gnosis-obliterating X-Buster ability), often to shocking effect. Series protagonist (and KOS-MOS co-creator) Shion is only able to figure most of them out enough to rebuild KOS-MOS a ''second'' time after gaining access to Kevin's original plans via a time paradox. |
| 243 | ** A great deal of the series' technology is the product of one man, Joachim Mizrahi. After he died on Militia during the Federation's invasion, a great amount of effort has been poured into piecing his prototypes back together, as well as reassembling his codex of knowledge: the Y-Data. Efforts to recreate his work from scratch by his rival Dr. Sellers amount to impressive, but fatally flawed knock-offs. |
| 244 | [[/folder]] |
| 245 | |
| 246 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 247 | * ''Webcomic/DriveDaveKellett'': The human Empire's Ring Drive. Only members of "la Familia" who rule the Empire are even allowed to see the inner workings, and they don't know how it works, just how to maintain or duplicate it, because their ancestor reverse-engineered it from a crashed alien ship. |
| 248 | %%* According to WordOfGod, the [[LaserBlade Beam swords]] in ''Webcomic/ExterminatusNow'' are LostTechnology from a long-gone empire, and are not comparable to any other technology (modern or otherwise) in the setting (so the dark Machine God cannot possess them). This goes a way towards explaining why the Forgemaster who builds them is ignorant and suspicious of modern plumbing. |
| 249 | * In a flashback arc of ''Webcomic/{{Gnoph}}'', a scientist criticizes the military for creating a breed of SuperSoldier pretty much by accident and then using them despite not really understanding how or why they work. Sure enough, things soon [[GoneHorriblyWrong Go Horribly Wrong]]. |
| 250 | -->'''Dr. Westman:''' Gotta love that military mentality: "Ah don' know why ut works, but they sure do kill!" ''Idiots.'' |
| 251 | * An early ''Webcomic/{{Goats}}'' storyline involves such a machine -- you put kittens in, and pop tarts come out; nobody knows what happens to the kittens. Later it's revealed that the machine is [[spoiler:a stolen alien spaceship engine, which is powered by the good feelings created when the kitten is placed in a loving home. But it's still a Black Box, because even the aliens don't know where the pop tarts come from]]. |
| 252 | * Sydney's Orbs in ''Webcomic/GrrlPower''. Sydney found them while SCUBA diving and they bonded to her, allowing her to use their powers. One allows her to fly as well as open wormholes, one allows her to create a nigh-indestructible forcefield, one allows her to create a pseudopod made of pure energy, and one allows her incredibly powerful TrueSight, as well as telepresence and the ability to teleport to her telepresence projection. At the start of the series, there are two orbs whose functions are a complete mystery [[spoiler:one of those orbs is eventually revealed to create breathable air, at the very least]]. Finally, the orbs seem to have the ability to "level up" (seemingly) after Sydney defeats powerful opponents, and even the upgrade system is a Black Box, as the upgrade nodes are unlabeled, and Sydney has to spend her upgrades blindly, hoping for something useful. It's unclear if the nature of the orbs is technological, magical, or some combination of both. It's also repeatedly suggested that Sydney is only tapping into a fraction of their true power. The wormholes that she can open are referred to as "Aetheric Causeways," and usually require massive power sources (such as those found on city-sized spaceships) in order to open them. Krona, a sorcerer with a unique "programming" style of magic takes a look at the orbs and informs Sydney that, with the information contained within the orbs, her magic would be capable of completely altering fundamental forces of reality, such as gravity. |
| 253 | * ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'': |
| 254 | ** Anja and Donlan created a computer that runs on magic, which even they don't fully understand the workings of. They're the only ones who use it -- the rest of the Court distrusts it precisely because it's a Black Box. |
| 255 | ** Diego's SuperPrototype robots (which also appear to run on a combination of magic and technology) are also black boxes. They have no visible power source, nor means of moving their limbs. [[spoiler:They are {{golem}}s made by a master mechanician who wrote their "OS" in what under a magnifying glass turns out to be a small book worth of runes.]] Modern robots are black boxes even while self-documenting. When asked to print their operating code, one produced a 3D image of some complex structure made of runes, with density requiring a microscope to read, without any sort of map legend, and neither derived from nor designed to be compatible with, any human languages, natural or programming (they are [[RecursiveCreators robot-built]]). |
| 256 | %%* The [[http://mushroomgo.thecomicseries.com/comics/21 Star core]] in ''Webcomic/MushroomGo'', nobody on the ship has any idea how it works. |
| 257 | * ''Webcomic/NobodyScores'' has an arc where the main characters end up getting their hands on a literal black box -- things went in, and other things came out. It was when it started producing multiple copies of the severed head of Shia [=LaBoeuf=] (who was still alive) that they started trying to get rid of it... |
| 258 | %%* During the "Star Trek" parody arc of ''Webcomic/QuentynQuinnSpaceRanger'', Omnibus describes the devices running the essential functions on the ''Glorious Undertaking'' as "black box" devices. [[spoiler:Turns out they were cosmic entity tech secretly installed by "Cue" to limit the number of exploding Federation vessels.]] |
| 259 | * AI in ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent''. AI don't know what makes them sentient. Even the inventor/"God" of AI, John Ellicott, doesn't understand how artificial sentience evolved, just that "A certain combination of software and hardware led to artificial intelligence, and once we figured that out, we could mass-produce them." |
| 260 | %%* Some government agents in ''Webcomic/RealLifeComics'' once confiscated an interplanetary ship Tony made. They opened up the reactor and found... ''jam.'' |
| 261 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Spacetrawler}}'', it's implied that the eponymous spacetrawlers (which the entire galaxy relies on to enable faster-than-light travel and matter synthesis from space debris) are so complicated that only the {{Technopath}} Eebs can understand and construct them. [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that their construction is less complicated than implied, but the details are so horrific that it's no surprise that the builders insist on keeping them secret.]] |
| 262 | %%* Weaponized in ''Webcomic/UserFriendly''. Cid, a CoolOldGuy, was looking at old military software and found an old device that he made, programmed, and maintained. He remembers that its primary purpose was to give him job security. |
| 263 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Westward}}'', Escherspace -- a form of FasterThanLightTravel -- appears to be a Black Box. Publicly, the government claims that "only a few scientists" know how it works; in reality, it's strongly hinted that only the mysterious alien Phobos may be capable of understanding it, and he must personally work the controls when the webcomic's eponymous CoolStarship makes an interstellar jump. |
| 264 | [[/folder]] |
| 265 | |
| 266 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 267 | * Most of the super-advanced technology in the ''Website/OrionsArm'' universe is at least partly powered by transapientech. This is by definition designed by beings orders of magnitude smarter than ordinary folks. This is something of a subversion in that the inner workings are completely known, and probably published somewhere on the net, but the people using them ''can't'' understand them, since their brains aren't complex enough. It's sort of like trying to teach a small child nuclear physics in depth. |
| 268 | * ''Website/SCPFoundation'': |
| 269 | ** The Foundation classifies objects into three broad categories: Safe, Euclid, and Keter. Safe objects' properties are researched enough that the foundation knows what the object does, even if it's not completely understood ''why'' it works. Most "black boxes" would fall into this category, since the input and output are stable. Note that here, "Safe" means "understood" and "easy to contain", ''not'' "non-dangerous".[[note]][[http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-2501 SCP-2501]], for instance, is an inanimate, wearable claw that can crush any object in its user's field of view through a pinching motion. Up to and including astronomical objects. Easy to contain? yes. Understood? Yes. Potentially world-ending? ''Also yes.''[[/note]] |
| 270 | ** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-914 SCP-914]] is a more literal Black Box than most; it's an incredibly complex mechanical machine into which you put an object, and it comes out "refined" from the other end. |
| 271 | * In ''Literature/{{Starsnatcher}}'', the effects of technologies created by vastly superhumanly intelligent A.I.s [[spoiler:like Fountainhead]] are clear enough (e.g. wormholes allow interstellar travel, singularity stones uplift people, etc.). However, the characters have no hope of modifying or replicating them, even though the resources to create at least some of them are there. |
| 272 | * In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', Tinker-tech suffers heavily from this as the Tinkers themselves don't fully understand ''why'' their technology actually works. The result is a number of built-in flaws that quickly render their creations inoperable without constant maintenance from the Tinker themselves. Eventually explained as [[spoiler:limits placed by the Entities to encourage creativity and discourage research into fields such as space travel and nanotechnology]]. |
| 273 | [[/folder]] |
| 274 | |
| 275 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 276 | * ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'''s Omnitrix. Not from Earth, seemingly simple to use on the surface... but it has secrets, hidden abilities, glitches, and occasionally, [[EmpathicWeapon a mind of its own]]. Eventually they meet its creator, who doesn't seem to understand what he's built either. He fully understands its inner workings, it's just that he's very reluctant about revealing them to other people. |
| 277 | * ''WesternAnimation/HazbinHotel'': As Charlie learns in episode 6, [[spoiler:''no one'' in Heaven actually knows [[OntologicalMystery what makes a soul worthy of going to Heaven or Hell]], not even the [[CelestialParagonsAndArchangels High Seraphim]]. [[BrokenSystemDogmatist Sera simply accepts not knowing]] out of fear that questioning things will make her a FallenAngel, while [[WideEyedIdealist Emily]] protests [[RageWithinTheMachine how unfair it is]] that sinners are denied the opportunity to redeem themselves simply because no one knows if it's even possible]]. |
| 278 | * The train in ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'' is an EldritchLocation running on incomprehensibly advanced technology, but Tulip and [[spoiler:Amelia as the fake Conductor]] are able to control it to some extent by analyzing its observable mechanisms (particularly the orbs every objects and creature seem to be tied to). Tulip even compares it to programming a game. |
| 279 | %%* In ''WesternAnimation/Thundercats2011'', young {{catfolk}} prince Lion-O is a CollectorOfTheStrange, namely "[[LostTechnology technology]]." He purchases a piece of what he suspects is technology from a FriendInTheBlackMarket, and spends quite a bit of time [[ChekhovsHobby puzzling over it]] and [[SchematizedProp diagramming]] it, but only realizes its function when he sees a Lizard use one to blow up a wall during TheSiege on his kingdom of Thundera. Finally understanding the device's interface as a StickyBomb, he grabs some others to join the fight against the Lizards, saving his father Claudus and brother Tygra by using the bombs to blow up some of the Lizards' {{Walking Tank}}s. |
| 280 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'': The Eliacube, a powerful MacGuffin and AmplifierArtifact belonging to the Eliatrope race, is this for most people of the World of Twelve. The Xelor [[ArcVillain Nox]] had been in possession of it for over 200 years [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity and suffering for it]], and he freely admits he still doesn't understand a fraction of what it is truly capable of, despite using it as the centerpiece of his plan to [[spoiler:power a ResetButton]]. Yugo, as an actual Eliatrope, is able to tap into its power in minutes what took Nox years or even decades to do the same, and he and his dragon brother Adamai still don't really know how to use it [[DontThinkFeel aside from pouring their energy into it and hoping for the best]]. The only person who knows how to use the Eliacube to its full potential is the Eliatrope Qilby, [[spoiler:its original creator]]. |
| 281 | [[/folder]] |
| 282 | |
| 283 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 284 | * [[http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/index.html The Jargon File]] and its dead-tree twin, ''The New Hacker's Dictionary'', is rife with terms describing programming Black Boxes, most notably [[http://catb.org/esr/jargon/html/magic-story.html Black Magic]], where a switch is found with its two positions labeled "Magic" and "More Magic". The only wire soldered to the switch goes directly to the case of a server--specifically, to a ground pin. There is electrically no way it can affect anything on the server (except for EXTREMELY bizarre capacitance effects), and yet switching to "Magic" causes the server to crash. |
| 285 | * Genetic algorithms (computer programs that emulate neo-Darwinian synthesis) can produce hardware that no human could design. [[http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/genalg/genalg.html#examples:electrical For example, an array of logic gates that sets its output high when it hears "go" and low when it hears "stop"]]. Inside the circuit, 5 of the 37 gates are not even connected to the rest, yet the device stops working when their power is disconnected! An order of magnitude weirder than the magic switch. Other examples include a research team [[http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2732-radio-emerges-from-the-electronic-soup.html accidentally reinventing the radio receiver]] while trying to evolve an oscillator, and very unusually shaped antennas that can be held in the palm of the hand and transmit signals from satellites to the surface of the earth. More about the [[http://www.netscrap.com/netscrap_detail.cfm?scrap_id=73 magical stop go circuit here]]. |
| 286 | ** This actually has a parallel in biology, with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-coding_DNA non-coding DNA]], sometimes called "junk DNA". Like computer code that doesn't produce any output, genome sequencing has revealed chunks of DNA in numerous species that have no apparent function, but mutations, errors, or omissions within these chunks still cause problems. |
| 287 | ** Genetic algorithms have a variant called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_algorithm Evolutionary programming.]] Basically, it's when you solve a programming task by having the computer generate an initial population of randomly-generated programs, then apply natural selection mechanism to mix-and-match them until you get a program which solves the task satisfactorily... but its code may be completely incomprehensible to a human. To make this an even stronger example, genetic algorithms just make random changes and go with what's best. They don't understand it either. It's a black box even to the designer. |
| 288 | * Black Box programming is a very important concept in real life. For example, all MediaNotes/{{API}}s (which allow developers to connect to things like Facebook or Google Maps) are black boxes; generally, the only details developers have are usage instructions and a description of what it does, since someone writing, say, a GPS application doesn't need to know anything about how Google Maps works. |
| 289 | ** In this case, this is actually considered a good thing: abstraction means compatibility. If your software is designed without using any knowledge of how the black box part works, it will (at least in theory) be possible to swap that library out for an updated or improved version later on. So long as ''somebody'' knows how it works, it's just a matter of trusting one's fellow engineers. In contrast, the moment you ''have'' to know how each variant of something really works instead of just one set of common operations, a task that should be trivial turns into a nightmare. Remember those DOS games and their sound setup programs? |
| 290 | ** In object-oriented programming, objects are supposed to be black boxes, often having public and private groups of variables and functions. The "client" only need to know what the functions do and what should be put in the variables, and not anything about the inner workings. Similarly, template libraries and built-in functions in many programming languages (like C++'s STL) are Black Boxes. The documentation on C++'s sort() function, for example, doesn't tell you what kind of sorting algorithm is used, because it doesn't really matter (although one can deduce that it's probably a quicksort implementation from what they say about its running time). |
| 291 | *** And if someone else wants the class to do something else, the chances are they'll write another class that extends and/or calls the old one, rather than trying to rewrite the existing source code. |
| 292 | *** This practice of extending and calling old classes, especially when other programmers in turn extend and call those extensions and calls, can lead to extremely tangled dependency charts, in which a single eleven-line package, deleted in a fit of pique by a programmer you've never heard of, can [[https://qz.com/646467/how-one-programmer-broke-the-internet-by-deleting-a-tiny-piece-of-code/ break the entire repository your code depends on]]. |
| 293 | * Older electronic (and most especially military) technologies may well have been designed by people who are dead, coded in languages which no-one ever hears of nowadays, use electronic standards long since obsoleted and built by companies that dissolved or got eaten by other companies some time ago. [=Black Box=]hood arrives quite naturally for such devices, which could conceivably include missile guidance systems or nuclear warhead triggers which are still quite useable today. |
| 294 | ** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOGBANK FOGBANK]] |
| 295 | ** One notable example is the Patriot Missile, whose software was originally written in a proprietary software language developed specifically for the project back in the seventies and never used again, making the source code incomprehensible to anyone who isn't an engineer who worked on the Patriot program at some point. This caused problems as various generations of the missile are expected to be in use into the 2040s, and replacing engineers means teaching them a new language. In the 2010s they gave up and started an effort to port all the software to a standardized programming language in order to make the code maintainable. |
| 296 | * [=COBOL=] used to be a very common language for developing business software in. Though superseded by modern languages like Java or Visual Basic, old working software was not replaced. The pool of skilled [=COBOL=] engineers is rapidly dwindling simply because they are retiring and in due course upgrade and maintenance engineers will simply not exist anymore. |
| 297 | ** Some colleges have tried to avert this by offering courses in [=COBOL=]. |
| 298 | * It seems that the original programming of Microsoft Excel might be a black box, since after the principal programmer quit, the project virtually stopped. Luckily he came back. |
| 299 | * Many psychiatric drugs work via mechanisms that are either unknown or only loosely understood. The laborious (sometimes decades long) process of searching for side effects and other quirks irons out many of the Black Box problems that plague fiction. |
| 300 | * Real Life is rife with stories of [[VetinariJobSecurity a programmer being fired for whatever reason, only for his ex-boss to realize nobody knows how to maintain the server]]. |
| 301 | * OlderThanRadio: During the early 18th century, Antonio Stradivari hand-crafted several wooden violins that, compared to other violins before or since, produce the highest-quality sound. Many violin manufacturers have, for centuries, attempted to not only replicate the sound of the Stradivarius, but have even labeled violins as "Stradivarius" as a marketing ploy. Unfortunately, when Stradivari died, the technology and skill required to produce a violin of such caliber died with him. Scientists continually do research on the Stradivarius sound and technologies to replicate that sound, and original Stradivarius violins remain the most valuable musical instruments in the world. |
| 302 | ** The "Stradivarius" label on violin is not there for marketing reasons. It's actually a model of violin -- Antonio Stradivari's instruments had very specific proportions (also being slightly larger than ones made by competing crafters). If you see a violin labeled "Stradivari", it means that its proportions and size match those of an original Stradivari instrument. |
| 303 | ** It has been speculated that the sound quality is due to the wood available at the time. He built them around the little ice age, and wood at that time was particularly thin and brittle due to the odd weather patterns, making them irreproduceable. On the other hand, other violin makers of the time were unable to reproduce it either. |
| 304 | ** Blind listening tests between Strads and top-of-the-line modern instruments tend to be inconclusive, as the listeners tend to be top-rated violinists who can not only distinguish the sound of a Strad from a modern instrument, but can often tell you which particular Strad is being played. And sometimes who is playing it. |
| 305 | ** While some new [[http://www.economist.com/node/21542380 evidence]] proves that Stradivari violins aren't that great compared to modern violins, they could be still considered technical marvels back in the day and most of their inflated prices comes from being collection pieces. |
| 306 | * Damascus steel. The precise technique through which blacksmiths of medieval Damascus produced their wares has been lost and no one since around 1750 has been able to duplicate the original exactly, although many have claimed to have done so. |
| 307 | * The philosophy of ''instrumentalism'' boils down to "the ''only'' important thing about any theory is whether it's usable, i.e., predicts a result of given experiment". Hunting for explanations is but a pointless infinite regression. This means that "light is truly made of particles" and "light is truly made of waves" are fancy statements that delusionally bind real events to imaginary constructs, while "wave model correctly and in convenient form predicts diffraction/interference effects" or "particle model correctly and in convenient form predicts absorption/emission effects" states everything that really matters in this issue. From this point of view ''anything'' is a Black Box, the only difference is that we already know how to dismantle some blackboxes to several smaller blackboxes and what buttons to push. |
| 308 | * Arguably the universe itself is a black box since we don't (yet) have a complete physical theory of the universe. Also, while we do have two theories that work fine in their respective arenas (General Relativity: big and heavy stuff, Quantum Mechanics: small and light stuff), they are contradictory and become completely incomprehensible when used together. |
| 309 | ** There's also an older theory called classical Newtonian mechanics, which works for medium-size and medium-mass stuff. It was specifically created to avert this trope and describe a Universe governed by simple, understandable laws; it failed at that. However, it works nicely for 90% of the stuff we encounter in our lives, and that's why it, and not GR or quantum, is taught first at schools. |
| 310 | * UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla, thanks to a heady mixture of personal eccentricities, outlandish claims, and industrial FUD both during and after his time, has a reputation for this sort of thing rivaled only by fiction. All his ''well-documented'' inventions work from explicable, if clever, principles of engineering -- but poorly documented claims abound of death rays, earthquake generators, and yet stranger things unreproducible by modern science. |
| 311 | ** The fact his documented ideas tended to get stolen (most infamously by UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison) might have something to do with it. |
| 312 | * The human body itself is quite the black box. With the exception of your occasional doctor or biologist, everyone uses theirs without the slightest hint of how the lot of it works. The brain in particular is quite the mystery, for if it was simple enough that we could easily understand it, we would be unable to use it to do exactly that. |
| 313 | * There was a fad for "miracle cure" machines at the beginning of the twentieth century that were actually called Black Box machines. You just set a few controls, turned it on, and whatever quack therapy that model was based on would cure the illness. The reason they were intentionally kept as black boxes was the controls did nothing to its function, and most in fact had no working parts, or the method of using the device was subject to considerable interpretation not based in any standard practice. One good example is the [[ChurchOfHappyology E-meter]]. |
| 314 | * This situation tends to happen whenever a nation receives exported military equipment from another nation's military (planes, tanks, ships etc.) and something sours political relations between them. A sudden change in government, or an embargo due to some unsavory incident, can effectively turn a chunk of a nation's military into a black box. No longer getting the support in terms of maintenance to keep them in service or upgrades to keep them relevant, the material in question rapidly becomes warehoused for fear of damaging it beyond repair or obsolete. Solutions are varied, ranging from reverse-engineering, putting in locally-made upgrades, producing their own replacements or getting a replacement from another friendly nation. Examples include the F-14's Iran received before [[UsefulNotes/IranianRevolution the Shah was overthrown]] and various helicopter models China received just before the Tiananmen Square incident. |
| 315 | * For a very common (and far more mundane) example, many, if not most, things that people use day-to-day are effectively black boxes. There is an oft-quoted analogy about how the ability to ''drive'' a car does not equate to an ability to design and ''build'' a car, or even to fix one. |
| 316 | ** Once you give up, go [[http://www.howstuffworks.com/ here.]] |
| 317 | * In biology, the occasional black box arises in the form of a living organism. For example, of the twenty or so species of beaked whale known to science, about three are well documented. The rest are very poorly understood, some of which we haven't even seen living specimens of yet. Where they live, how they breed, what they eat, how deep they dive, none of these are known. We know that they exist because we have dead bodies (for a while, one species was known only by ''a jawbone''), but ''how'' they exist is largely a mystery. |
| 318 | * For much of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, nuclear weapons were black boxes, either entirely or to the people working with them. All nukes were designed by multiple people, but sometimes these teams worked loosely with each other in isolation, the effect being that no one person knew how a particular nuclear weapon worked. This method of security eventually fell out of favor as some of the bombs produced by these teams were abject failures, to the extent that at one point in US history, nearly all the warheads carried by US submarines were duds due to their faulty safety systems. In the other case of nuclear black boxes, teams designing [=ICBMs=] and bomb cases were given the bare minimum of information needed to design a delivery system. |
| 319 | ** A remarkable example of this effect is describing how, exactly, thermonuclear bombs work: Only the engineers and scientists who have designed them actually ''know.'' Even though the technology is over a half-a-century old and possessed by at least half-a-dozen countries, details of the mechanism have remained strictly classified. The public "Teller-Ulam" design which is the de facto standard for all thermonuclear weapons has been pieced together mainly through inference and assumption, and is quite free of details. |
| 320 | * Several of the computer rankings that make up the Bowl Championship Series formula in college football are proprietary. Accordingly, no one exactly knows why they would rank the teams in the way they do, and major bowl bids (and millions of dollars) can hinge on the result. The BCS system was replaced in 2014 by a selection committee that decides how teams are ranked, with the top four teams playing for a national championship at the end of the season. |
| 321 | * The Mechanical Turk was a machine built in the eighteenth century that supposedly was able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent. Though the cabinet could be opened to reveal a complex gear mechanism, nobody who saw it in action could figure out how it worked. Of course, the reason was because [[spoiler:The Turk wasn't an automaton at all, but was concealing a human player]], and the reason no one could determine exactly what was going on for almost a century was [[spoiler:the human player]] was very well-hidden. That said, several people over that span came close to figuring it out, but their hypotheses were always flawed in some way. |
| 322 | * Hex in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' (above) was based on one of Sir Creator/TerryPratchett's own computers, a ZX Spectrum he tinkered with and added hardware to until it did what he wanted. Eventually he lost track of it all, and there were components which he couldn't remember or deduce the purpose of, but it you took them out then everything stopped working. |
| 323 | * Black boxes, often by that name, are used as an important learning tool in signal processing. The idea is that you give a student a way to produce a variety of inputs (oscillators, noise generators), a suite of measuring tools (oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers), and a black box. By applying different inputs, taking measurements, and applying the signal processing principles they've been taught, they try to infer exactly what's inside the black box. With enough constraints on the parameters (e.g., "This will only contain amplifiers and attenuators, because we haven't learned about filters yet.") the black box can become simply a logic puzzle. |
| 324 | * In topology diagrams used by computer network admins, a part of the network whose internal structure is unknown or irrelevant is represented by a cloud. A site to site WAN linking two corporate sites, such as an internet VPN tunnel or private WAN are good examples. The admin doesn't have to worry about what technologies are used internally within the cloud; they just care that it gets packets from one side to the other. This is where the term "cloud computing" comes from. |
| 325 | * A significant part of TheDarkAges after the fall of the Roman Empire turned a lot of the Empire's technological developments into this. Highly effective concrete, the ability to build aqueducts, their methods of producing weapons and armor, and more were all lost when the Empire collapsed, and it took hundreds of years for society to recover to the point where they could reach and surpass it. In the East this is ''still'' happening with the Byzantine recipe for GreekFire. When the Empire fell, the recipe was lost, and to this day no one knows what was in it in order to make it be able to burn so intensely, even on water. |
| 326 | * A variant of this trope: in ancient times, doctors would recommend that people suffering from depression and the like drink mineral water from springs. While it worked, they had no idea why. It turns out to be because water from springs tends to contain a lot of lithium, which has an anti-depressant effect and is still used for that purpose. |
| 327 | * In archive science, the "black box" method (devised at the University of Michigan in the 1980s) refers to a schema for making appraisal decisions. The goal was to create a series of questions that archivists could ask to evaluate documents, granting a level of transparency to decisions that may not otherwise be clearly motivated -- in other words, to ''avoid'' the black box. |
| 328 | * Swedish band Wintergatan's claim to fame is the Marble Machine. However as their [=YouTube=] channel shows, even they don't know exactly how it works. Martin Molin's videos show him trying to troubleshoot one problem with the rebuild or trying to solve another known problem only to find even more issues with it. At one point he was trying to solve just one marble's tracks issue with losing marbles, and found over seven different problems that he wasn't even aware of. None of which had anything to do with the initial issue he was working on. |
| 329 | * Much of economics can be described as working this way. |
| 330 | ** To start with, one of the reasons that command economies are impractical is that much of the information needed to fully plan the economy is locked inside people's heads, where it may be secret, private, or often ''not even consciously known''. Hence, essentially all economic theory revolves around people and firms acting as black boxes, taking in price signals and outputting production and consumption decisions. |
| 331 | ** Secondly, even though in principle the internals of a firm may be examined, most firms are, in practice, very limited in how outsiders are permitted to access their information. While you can physically walk into their offices and rifle through their internal files, if you don't have a court order or similar, that's a good way to get [[EnforcedTrope arrested for corporate espionage]]. Likewise, most corporations counsel their employees not to talk to journalists, so you only see the inner workings [[TheStoolPigeon when something seriously untoward is happening]]. So most people treat them as black boxes. Although, like signal processing black boxes, you can learn something about the inner workings from the official accounts, particularly in the case of [[{{Ponzi}} ponzi schemes]], which often grow too fast to be anything else. |
| 332 | ** Thirdly, the phenomenon of black boxes that suddenly stop working is a feature in many [[https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/opinion/nobel-economics-bernanke-diamond-dybvig.html economic crises]]. |
| 333 | [[/folder]] |
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