Honesty
newbie
Reged: 03/05/04
Posts: 39
|
|
The Voynich Manuscipt
What do you think? A genuine code that's still uncracked or a hoax?
--------------------
I'm Idaho.
|
Packer_Fan
stranger
Reged: 04/12/04
Posts: 16
Loc: Virginia, USA
|
|
How did you find it?
--------------------
Wild man in a wild world.
|
poia
The Modeleter
Reged: 01/25/04
Posts: 168
Loc: NJ
|
|
go to any site that deals with history's mysteries and this will be there... it's a fairly popular subject, but... hoax or not? 
--------------------
"OK, so what's the speed of dark?"S.W.
|
Packer_Fan
stranger
Reged: 04/12/04
Posts: 16
Loc: Virginia, USA
|
|
I don't think it's a hoax, no. But my logic is weak and may even be considered naive. Why would anyone take the time to do this? Because they could? I do think it might just be the ramblings of someone goofing off, doodling, jotting random stuff down, loosely based on other stuff they saw, but to me a hoax has malice intent. This doesn't seem to.
But that's just my opinion.
--------------------
Wild man in a wild world.
|
poia
The Modeleter
Reged: 01/25/04
Posts: 168
Loc: NJ
|
|
I tend to agree with you... Although it looks like a great code, obviously impossible to crack, it might be someone’s private play... Someone who had the luxury to spend so much time in his own private world creating this manuscript, filled with his thoughts and ideas in his private language... Sort of like "Myst"...:) But I do wish  it is a great book, once “cracked” to reveal wonderful stories, or “secrets”… conspiracies… a la Da Vinci stuff… :-)
--------------------
"OK, so what's the speed of dark?"S.W.
|
WKShadow
Beloved Angel
Reged: 06/02/04
Posts: 79
Loc: Myrtle Beach, SC
|
|
Well, that is fascinating, but what's more is that it is still undecifered. Hmm.
|
Arras
enthusiast
Reged: 05/24/04
Posts: 263
Loc: B.C., Canada
|
|
Something to bear in mind with any "undeciphered" document is that you're assuming the document contains meaningful information in some language or other, and that it has merely been made to look like gibberish because a cipher key was applied to it.
That's an important--and risky--assumption. Consider that there may never have been any meaningful information in any language, and that no encryption of any kind ever took place. I could construct a string of garbage, like:
KSCYUJFNESCXTHNNWSSJJJSEW
I could tell you that this is actually a meaningful text string that I happen to have encrypted with some mysterious algorithm, and you could waste years of your life trying to extract some meaning out of what was, after all, just a series of random keystrokes.
Why would someone go to such lengths to produce a hoax like that? Fame/notoriety and money, most likely. Consider the publicity that arises from claiming to have an "undecipherable" manuscript. Every cryptologist on the planet suddenly wants a crack at it, and the more you hint at the importance of the subject matter, the more incentive people have to spend time on the problem.
Also remember that the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance were periods of great intellectual vanity. Musicians, artists and mathematicians were all eager to impress one another with their cleverness, and all sorts of puzzles and brain-teasers emerged during that period. I can easily imagine some clever half-wit having a good joke at the expense of his peers by writing up a nonsensical manuscript and claiming that it contained something encrypted. His peers would wrack their brains trying to figure it out, to demonstrate their intellectual superiority, while he secretly snickered and got to gloat about being smarter than they were. Not hard to imagine at all
|
Dazzle
addict
Reged: 04/02/04
Posts: 484
Loc: UK
|
|
ghY hjsneeB ajkeI jdkswW jkjkxxO dklsX ddrueY aY ahjdK asklwI hdjsT fue'fhjH dhjwN msn'L shjwX, sjkwU dhsjwaC dnmwhaA dhjeP fdjkwF aswerI dbnckwJ s'V K. djkwU hsdhjQ xbsdZ djkwuY vbh'wR sjke! bnG dhG hdjsN.
|
Dazzle
addict
Reged: 04/02/04
Posts: 484
Loc: UK
|
|
Quote:
Dazzle said:
ghY hjsneeB ajkeI jdkswW jkjkxxO dklsX ddrueY aY ahjdK asklwI hdjsT fue'fhjH dhjwN msn'L shjwX, sjkwU dhsjwaC dnmwhaA dhjeP fdjkwF aswerI dbnckwJ s'V K. djkwU hsdhjQ xbsdZ djkwuY vbh'wR sjke! bnG dhG hdjsN.
I've already received two PMs since I posted this from people asking me to translate my spiel from above. I'm not going to translate it; you've just got to work out the code.
ghdtR gh'B
|
Sephia
Supreme Goddess
Reged: 11/28/03
Posts: 876
Loc: MA, USA
|
|
first of all, is there a meaning or it gibberish? If there is, I think some kind of a clue is in order.
--------------------
"Your life is yours alone, rise up and live it" ~Terry Goodkind
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
[Re: