History Main / BlackBox

* 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 we could easily understand it, we would be unable to do exactly that.

* 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/HazbinHotel'': As Charlie learns in episode 6, [[spoiler:''no one'' in Heaven actually knows 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 [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight Emily protests how unfair it is]] that sinners are denied the opportunity to redeem themselves simply because no one knows if it's even possible]].

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'': Cavaliere is one. Nico's report mentions that she can't figure out how it works, and Dante has no idea how he put it together.

In a ScavengerWorld, most complex technology is like a Black Box, because generations that grow 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.

* 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 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.

* 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 by immortal FallenHero Kharn Sagara. That's because the Mericanii A.I. had upgraded themselves into MechanicalAbomination territory and were on the cusp of becoming CosmicEntities until they were destroyed by the GodEmperor.

* In ''Literature/{{You}}'', 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.

* 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 UpToEleven to any piece of [[{{Precursors}} Departed]] tech that's discovered.

* Inspired Science from ''TabletopGame/TrinityContinuum'' 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.

* ''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 [[GiantMecha Astro Megazord]].

* 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 & Eva Unit-04 ''vanishes'', along with the entire research facility and all other objects in a 50-mile radius.

* ''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.
* Eega Beeva of the ''[[ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse Mickey Mouse Comics]]'' 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.
%%* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics''' NICOLE. It 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:

* 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 of the scientists remarks that the video recording from the chair consists of 18 hours of static,]] which he is unable to explain.
* ''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.

* 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]].

... 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.)

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.

%%* 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.]].

* ''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]].
* ''Anime/GaoGaiGar'': In one flashback, they 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.
* 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.
* In ''Manga/KnightsOfSidonia'' the Kabizashi blades, 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.]]

%%* 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.]]
* In the ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'' manga, nobody has the technology to build new airship engines any more, so when an airship is downed, there's a scramble to salvage the irreplaceable engines.
* 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]] [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum 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 & Eva Unit-04 ''vanishes'', along with the entire research facility and all other objects in a 50-mile radius.
* TheReveal of ''Manga/OutlawStar''. The eponymous CoolShip and [[spoiler:Melfina]] were 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.]]
** 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.
* 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.

* 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.
* 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.

* 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".)
* 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.

%%-->'''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...\\
'''The Firewall''': [[{{Emoticon}} XP]]\\
'''Eggman''': It's downright RUDE!

* 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.

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* 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 of the scientists remark that the video recording from the chair consists of 18 hours of static,]] which he is unable to explain.
* ''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.
* In ''[[Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague Justice League]]'', 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.
* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:

** It was already implied in ''Film/TheAvengers2012'' that there was more to the Tesseract than Red Skulls experiments, but both the Tesseract and the Staff were later revealed to be Infinity Stones, representing a fundamental aspect of the Universe itself and became the core plot of ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''.
** [[Film/IronMan 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).

-->"It's pre-microprocessor! It's pre-EVERYTHING!"

* 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.]]
* 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.
* 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.
* In Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''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]].

* The Belt of Deltora from Emily Rodda's ''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.
* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' 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 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. 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. (Did we mention that he is also OrganicTechnology. He uses ants instead of electrons.)
* In Creator/RobertAHeinlein's novel ''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 space ships. 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.
%%* Parodied in ''The Galaxy Game'' (by Phil Janes) where a scientist trying to master {{FTL}} 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.

* In ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'':
** 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.

* Creator/JohnnyRingo and Creator/TravisSTaylor's ''Literature/IntoTheLookingGlass'' books 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.]]

* 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 SufficientlyAdvancedAliens.
* 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.]]
* Willis Linsay's stepper boxes in Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter's ''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.
* In Lukyanenko's ''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]].

* In Creator/VernorVinge's ''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.
* ''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.]]
* In Creator/AlastairReynolds' ''[[Literature/RevelationSpaceSeries Revelation Space]]'' 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 SufficientlyAdvancedAliens [[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...]]
%%* The Strugatsky brothers' ''Literature/RoadsidePicnic'', as well as The Game of the Movie S.T.A.L.K.E.R (but oddly enough, not the movie) have a Danger Zone full of Black Box alien artifacts as the catalyst for the plot.

* In Lukyanenko's ''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.

* The ''Literature/TroyRising'' series: 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''.
* In David Brin's ''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. But even Earthclan has to rely on Black Box technology for certain things -- i.e. reality shields, psi shields, hyperspace, and the Library itself.
* The Creator/RobertAHeinlein[=/=]Creator/SpiderRobinson novel ''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.
* In Ian Irvine's ''[[Literature/TheThreeWorldsCycle Well of Echoes]]'' series, the clankers draw energy from nodes. No one knows why it works, but their 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. ]]
* In Robert Jordan's ''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''.

* In the re-imagined ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'', 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.]]

* An InvokedTrope 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 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 this will hold water should The Machine be exposed, however, and the actual reason is the Machine is [[NoManShouldHaveThisPower too powerful for any person to have access]], and so Finch encrypts it so heavily even he will never be able to access it again.
* ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace''/''Series/PowerRangersTurbo'': A literal black box is used as a plot point in the season finale of ''Turbo'', and in Episode 3 of ''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 [[GiantMecha Astro Megazord]].
%%* ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'' featured the "Black Box", an unfinished device from the very first Red Samurai Ranger; Antonio completes it and unlocks [[SuperMode Super Samurai]] mode.
* ''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.
* 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. 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. But 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."
* In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' Data's positronic brain that makes him a RidiculouslyHumanRobot 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 took the issue to court]] Data gained the legal right to refuse such a dismantling anyway. His own attempt to replicate the technology seemed to succeed when he built a "daughter", Lal, but he ends up proving the problem as her mental capacities increased exponentially until the system collapsed. Also, the risk of creating another Lore (Data's [[FlawedPrototype dangerously violent older brother]]) highlights the risks of [[AIIsACrapshoot succeeding at building a stable brain]].

* 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.]]

%%* Much of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun'' revolves around recovery, possession and use of the Tacitus, a black box-type artifact misplaced by the SufficientlyAdvancedAliens.

** 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.)

** The design of their conventional [=FTL=] 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]].

* 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.
* ''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.

* 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.]]

* ''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.

%%* In ''WesternAnimation/{{ThunderCats|2011}}'', 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.

** 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.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E11TurnLeft Turn Left]]", the TARDIS serves this role. [[spoiler:The episode is set in a {{crapsack|World}} ForWantOfANail 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.]]

* 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 the Shah was overthrown and various helicopter models China received just before the Tienanmen Square incident.

* 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 Greek Fire. 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.

* Inspired Science from ''[[TabletopGame/TrinityUniverse Trinity Continuum]]'' 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.

* 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 spaceships) are referred to as "Aetheric Causeways," and usually require massive power sources (such as those found on city-sized 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.

* 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.

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'': Dwarven technology is almost always a BlackBox 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 an 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.

* Deadliar from ''VideoGame/{{Hellsinker}}'' 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.

* 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 BlackBox, 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 spaceships) are referred to as "Aetheric Causeways," and usually require massive power sources (such as those found on city-sized 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.

** 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.

* 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]].

* 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.

* 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. 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. But the Stargate itself is way beyond human tech. (Though not beyond Tollan's tech, who do manage to manufacture their own.)