Definition of “black-boxing”

A quick definition of “black-boxing” by Bruno Latour (in Pandora’s Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies): a process by which

“scientific and technical work is made invisible by its own success. When a machine runs efficiently, when a matter of fact is settled, one need focus only on its inputs and outputs and not on its internal complexity. Thus, paradoxically, the more science and technology succeed, the more opaque and obscure they become.“