Examples
Considering a black box that could not be opened to "look inside" and see how it worked, all that would be possible would be to guess how it worked based on what happened when something was done to it (input), and what occurred as a result of that (output). If after putting an orange in on one side, an orange fell out the other, it would be possible to make educated guesses or hypotheses on what was happening inside the black box. It could be filled with oranges; it could have a conveyor belt to move the orange from one side to the other; it could even go through an alternate universe. Without being able to investigate the workings of the box, ultimately all we can do is guess.
However, occasionally strange occurrences will take place that change our understanding of the black box. Consider putting in an orange in and having a guava pop out. Now our "filled with oranges" and "conveyor belt" theories no longer work, and we may have to change our educated guess as to how the black box works.
The black box theory of consciousness, which states that the mind is fully understood once the inputs and outputs are well defined, and generally couples this with a radical skepticism regarding the possibility of ever successfully describing the underlying structure, mechanism, and dynamics of the mind.
Read more about this topic: Black Box Theory
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