Pasquale’s The Black Box Society argues that contemporary power increasingly operates through opaque algorithmic systems that classify, rank and judge individuals while shielding their own procedures from public scrutiny. His central concern is the asymmetry between personal transparency and institutional secrecy: citizens are constantly tracked by platforms, financial institutions, data brokers and government agencies, yet the mechanisms that convert their data into scores, rankings, risk profiles or exclusions remain largely inaccessible. This produces a society in which reputation, search and finance become decisive infrastructures of opportunity, but their decisions are hidden behind trade secrecy, technical complexity and legal protection. The problem is not simply that algorithms are complex; it is that their opacity prevents democratic accountability, due process and meaningful contestation. A credit score, search ranking, watch list or automated employment assessment can shape a person’s life without explanation or appeal. Pasquale’s case study of finance is especially revealing: before and after the 2008 crisis, institutions used complexity and secrecy to obscure risk, while public authorities rescued the system without sufficient transparency. Against this model, Pasquale calls for an intelligible society, where powerful institutions must be made legible to regulators, independent reviewers and citizens. His conclusion is that technology should not merely accelerate judgement; it must be governed by public values such as fairness, accountability and human dignity.