A black box is a literary technique to provide a device solving a complex problem, hiding the whole complexity and providing a result.
Contents
Characteristics
A black box is a device, a computer or another scientific device, producing a solution after some time to a complex problem. It's used when the complex scientific process isn't explained to the reader or viewer.
Parody
The movie Galaxy Quest contains a device called Omega 13, which works as a black box, rebuilt by an alien species not knowing what it does.
The novel Redshirts by John Scalzi depicts the concept of black box, as a small device producing a solution, without any scientifically coherent explanation available.
References
Black box (fiction) Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA