> _nobody_, contrary to what SEO consultants might tell you, knows how those rankings really work This reminds me very much of "Conjoiner drives" in Alastair R

> _nobody_, contrary to what SEO consultants might tell you, knows how those rankings really work This reminds me very much of "Conjoiner drives" in Alastair Reynold's books. Designed by a very advanced post-human hive-mind (the Conjoiners), they are sold to normal humans to power starships. No non-Conjoiner understands how they work, and any attempt to find out is prohibited and can result in massive reprisals by the Conjoiners. The engines have a few (6) dials to set parameters, and a few readouts from green to red. What the dials actually do and what the displays represent are not known, but the ability to run faster is critical to a starship. Drivemasters keep complex logs of the effects of changing the dials slightly on their ship, and swap their guesswork about the effects with other ships. But! Mess with the dials too much, drive into the red, and the drives detonate in an enormous explosion. Try to open a drive, or separate one of a pair from another, and they detonate.