The Voynich Ninja

When you're finished we'll pop the excel into here for future reference, and have a good giggle in 2018.
Actually, I rather feel that we have all the pieces of the puzzle in front of us. If we can't solve it this year, well we'll never solve it, there's no magic clue waiting for us out there (and no, I'm not going to change my answer to that question )
(offtopic) oh, I'm closer to getting my facsimile copy of the Voynich, supposed to be delivered this year!

(01-01-2017, 06:48 PM)Linda Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I have to admit I felt the need to add commentary and/or qualification as I was answering, but then I realized it's just a snapshot of the current state of things and doesn't lock one into anything, regardless of what anyone else might understand one's answers to indicate. Have fun

Yes, exactly. It's not really about who is right, but more about seeing how the general opinion evolves in a year. I bet some of these answers would have been different in 2015, but unfortunately we have no stats. So it's a good time to start.

On the other hand, we are used to building the necessary precautions into every statement. I understand that some people don't feel comfortable playing this snapshot game out in the open, which is why I built in the PM option

My Voynich philosophy has always been not to assume anything about the VMS - even that the text has meaning - until an undeniable answer emerges. So my answer to all of these questions is really "I don't know yet", but if I had to take a guess:

1. Yes
   
2. Yes
   
3. Yes
   
4. No
   
5. No
   
6. No
   
7. Yes
   
8. Yes
   
9. Yes
   
10. Yes
    
11. No
    
12. Yes
    
13. Yes (in contrast to Anton's "no")
    
14. No
    

1. Open questions:
2. I don't know
   
3. I don't know
   
4. I don't know
   

- =  50/50. No idea.

1.y
2.y
3.- Do the images match the text?
4.y
5.n
6.n
7.n
8.y
9.y
10.y
11.-  Is the MS authored by a known historical figure?
12.y
13.y  But define breakthrough.
14.n

1. Angels/divine beings bathing & doing other divine and symbolical things
2. Philosophical Aristotelian explanation on usage and preparation, tools, guidance.
3. -

Current rate of YES answers, ranked from most agreement to least. Some interesting patterns already.

100% Does the text contain any meaning?
100% Do the images match the text?
100% Is astronomy and/or astrology an important part of the MS?
100% Will we ever be able to read the MS?

88% Are the plants meant to refer to real plants?
75% Has the text been purposefully enciphered to conceal its meaning?
75% Is medicine an important part of the MS?
75% Is the MS the creative product of one mind?
75% Will there be any breakthrough in Voynich studies in 2017?

29% Is the MS authored by a known historical figure?
25% Have the images been made ambiguous or otherwise strange to conceal their true meaning?
14% Is the majority of the plants exotic from a European perspective (Asian, African, American...)?
13% Is alchemy an important part of the manuscript?

0% Is the MS any kind of hoax?

1) Yes
2) No
3) Yes
4) Yes
5) Yes
6) No
7) No
8) Yes
9) No (would answer "maybe", but I don't think it is primarily about medicine)
10) No
11) No
12) Yes (would answer "maybe")
13) Yes (if we replace "breakthrough" with "incremental progress", otherwise "breakthrough" is a bit ambiguous)
14) No

1) Something to do with the properties and/or uses of water and possibly other fluids
2) Possibly related to other B-language sections or to the nine-rosette diagram
3) Some otherwise unknown natural language, presumably of non-European origin

1. yes
   
2. no
   
3. yes
   
4. yes
   
5. no
   
6. no
   
7. no
   
8. no
   
9. yes
   
10. yes
    
11. no
    
12. yes
    
13. yes
    
14. no
    

1. Open questions:
   
2. sauna
   
3. advises, thoughts
   
4. Latin
   

for the fun of it:

1 Yes
2 Yes
3 Yes
4 Yes
5 No
6 No
7 No
8 Yes
9 No
10 Yes
11 No
12 Yes
13 Yes
14 No

Open questions:
1 Summary and/or Commentary on natural philosophy; based on mixed sources
2 I don’t know. Plenty of things come to mind but all are loose ideas: Literary tradition, teaching and learning advice, weather proverbs (German 'Bauernregeln')...
3 Latin (medieval, not classical) or a mixture of Latin and vernacular

Thanks to all who have responded so far. The more people participate, the better our "snapshot" of the ideas that live in the community at the start of the year will be

I don't have actual, hard and confirmed answers to your questions. While I certainly agree with the majority, in most cases, that such is a reasonable evaluation of what the VMs presents to the the viewer's perception, I cannot fully accept, with an absolute certainty, that this level of perceived reality is genuine. VMs investigation is sometimes compared to the parable of the blind men and the elephant, but that requires that each one interacts with a different part of the elephant.

Each VMs investigator has access to the same informational input. The researcher's task is to make a sensible interpretation of the information presented by the VMs. And the record of that research shows that the task of interpretation has been and remains problematic. The VM s is like an egg with an extra thick shell. And the attempts to crack the shell have so far all failed. Hanging a new calendar on the wall is not going to change that.

From the outside, the purpose of an eggshell is to protect and defend against entry. The appearance of the VMs is like a facade, a false front, intended to deflect and prevent the discovery of its contents by those for whom it was not intended. That is the purpose of hidden communication. That is the reason for disguised illustrations. A facade is not created to exist on its own. It is constructed to hide the intended purpose. The intended reality is hidden behind the facade.

Much of current discussion is involved with comparative investigations of the apparent nature of the facade, and does not provide a way of penetrating the facade to find the reality behind it. Purpose is found in intentional construction. Intentional construction is demonstrated by objective, positional confirmations and verified by historical grounding, a recognizable correspondence with fact and tradition. Further progress will depend on such recognition.