black box vs mechanism

black box

noun
  • Any similar device on motor vehicles, such as rail event recorders and ship trip recorders. 

  • A flight recorder; the brightly colored cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders in an aircraft designed to aid in determining the cause of an accident. 

  • A device used in phreaking that prevents the calling party from being billed for the call placed. 

  • A type of theater characterized by a lack of decoration or complex mechanisms. 

  • A theoretical construct or device with known input and output characteristics but unknown method of operation. 

verb
  • To focus on the inputs and outputs without worrying about the internal complexity. 

mechanism

noun
  • Any combination of cams, gears, links, belts, chains and logical mechanical elements. 

  • Any process of, or system designed to manage useful energy conversion. 

  • A mental, physical, or chemical process. 

  • The theory that all natural phenomena can be explained by physical causes. 

  • Any mechanical means for the conversion or control of motion, or the transmission or control of power. 

  • A group of entities, such as objects, that interact together. 

How often have the words black box and mechanism occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )