Blackboxism

Starting with definitions, what’s a black box? It’s a system or process whose internal workings are not known or not considered; only the inputs and outputs are observed.

Blackboxism, a word I just coined (yes, I’m planting the flag), is an approach or belief that focuses on outputs and outcomes, not inner mechanisms. Abstraction is one thing, it’s a tool for simplification. But a black box is something else entirely: it’s a fortress you genuinely can’t figure out because its inner workings are intentionally hidden or protected.

It’s that “What were they thinking?” feeling you get when someone’s actions are baffling. The human brain itself isn’t a true black box (we’ve mapped much of its hardware). But human behavior? That’s where the black box comes into play. You see the input, the situation, and the output, the questionable decision, but the internal logic is completely opaque.

Technological Dependency

We live in an age of profound technological dependency, which is essentially mass adopted Blackboxism. Think about your smartphone. You know what it does, but do you have any real idea how it works? The GPS triangulating your position from satellites orbiting thousands of miles above, the processor executing billions of cycles per second, the cloud infrastructure that summons a movie to your screen. It’s all magic.

Input: I tap an icon. Output: A car arrives in three minutes.

We’ve become consumers of outputs, not students of processes. We trust the blue dot on the map without questioning the intricate dance of algorithms and signals that place it there. This isn’t just about convenience; it’s a cognitive trade off. By accepting the black box, we gain efficiency and simplicity, but we lose understanding and control. We’ve effectively outsourced our knowledge to systems we can’t inspect. When they break, we are helpless because we never understood the mechanism in the first place. It’s the ultimate dependency.

The Cult of the Expert

This dependency isn’t just technological; it’s social. We treat experts and institutions as human black boxes. We go to a doctor with a set of symptoms (inputs) and walk away with a prescription (output). We hand our money to a financial advisor (input) and receive a portfolio statement (output). We don’t understand the diagnostic reasoning or the market analysis, and we’re not expected to. We are taught to trust the process we cannot see.

This creates a dangerous power dynamic. When the black box works, it’s efficient. But when it fails (think of a misdiagnosis or a market crash), we have no framework to question the logic. To challenge the expert is to claim you know better about a mechanism you were never allowed to understand. This is the foundation of blind faith in authority. We defer our judgment to these specialized black boxes, hoping the output is correct because we have no way of verifying the internal calculation.

The Algorithmic Oracle

If the expert is a human black box, then the modern algorithm is its god level evolution. Recommendation engines, credit scoring systems, and social media feeds are the ultimate black boxes, for one terrifying reason: often, not even their creators fully understand their internal logic. A deep learning model is trained on data, not programmed with explicit rules. It builds its own internal mechanism.

Input: Your entire digital history, every click, pause, and “like.”
Output: A perfectly tailored reality designed to keep you engaged, enraged, or just buying things.

We are feeding the most intimate parts of our lives into a system whose goals (ad revenue, user retention) are not our own, and we have no idea how it reaches its conclusions. It’s a one way mirror. The system knows everything about our inputs, but we know nothing about its process. We are living by the outputs of an opaque oracle, shaping our opinions, purchases, and even moods based on logic we can never inspect.

Addiction: Blackbox to Ourselves

Perhaps the most personal and perplexing black box is the one we create within our own minds through addiction or compulsive habits. The process is painfully clear from the outside.

Input: Stress, boredom, a social cue.
Output: Reaching for a cigarette, doomscrolling for an hour, making an impulsive purchase.

The person caught in the loop often feels like a spectator to their own actions. They know the inputs and are acutely aware of the outputs, but the internal logic that connects the two becomes inaccessible. The rational mind, which wants a different outcome, is locked out of the control room. The decision making process that feels so automatic and inevitable is the black box. Rationalizations and self deception become its walls, hiding the true “why” from the conscious self. You’re observing your own system, puzzled and frustrated by its outputs, unable to debug the code running in your own head.

Interpersonal Black Boxes

Social dynamics are full of sealed containers. You text a joke, get a one-word reply, instantly spiral: Are they busy? Annoyed? Typing with oven mitts? The black box is their mind; your output is pure speculation. Miscommunication is basically an I/O mismatch.

Functional Fixedness

If Blackboxism is accepting that you don’t need to know how something works, then functional fixedness is one of its most limiting consequences. This cognitive bias traps us into seeing an object only for its most common, intended use. We see the black box’s label, “This is a hammer,” and our thinking stops there. We don’t see its other properties: a heavy object, a pendulum weight, a doorstop.

Innovation is the art of breaking open the black box and seeing its components, not just its function.

The classic candle problem is the perfect illustration. You’re given a candle, a box of thumbtacks, and matches, and you must mount the candle on the wall. Most people get stuck because they see the box only as a container for tacks, its black boxed function. They fail to see it for what it is at a first principles level, a small, cardboard platform. The solution (tack the box to the wall and place the candle on it) only becomes obvious once you mentally “un box” the box.

To innovate, you have to defy functional fixedness. You have to look at the tools, systems, and ideas around you and ask not just “What does it do?” but “What is it made of, and what else could it do?” This is the direct opposite of passively accepting the output. It’s about cracking the box open and rearranging the parts.

Unboxing

1. Probe defaults. When something “just works,” pause and peek inside.
2. Document mysteries. Even partial schematics beat total opacity.
3. Share the maps. Collective X-ray vision > private hoards of insight.
4. Accept some darkness. Not every circuit is yours to trace; pick battles.