28-08-2020, 06:17 PM
Equation analogy as an approach to the VMS text
Pondering upon what the underlying text would look like when/if a solution is ever found,
an analogy occurred to me as a way to think about the VMS text and all its statistical properties.
It maybe useful, maybe not, anyway for what it's worth here it is.
Imagine that we have an equation with "script_method" on one side and "underlying_text" on the other.
We treat the 2 methods as additive to result in the VMS text with all its peculiarities.
(script_method ) + ( underlying_text ) = VMStext
For instance:
underlying_text = Classical Latin prose
script_method = voynich font ( here by font i mean mapping latin letters to voynich glyphs )
( voynich font ) + ( Classical Latin prose ) = VMStext
Then we could give each term a number like this:
For the statistical properties of the VMS text we assign say a 7,
as using the voynich font is a basic script_method we assign it a 1,
and our underlying_text is Classical latin in prose so we give that a 1,
then we get (1) + (1) = 7 quite simply the sum does not add up.
However hard we try, any attempt to read the VMStext as Classical latin mapped simply 1-1 with Voynich glyphs results in gibberish.
Now armed with our imaginary equation,
there are 2 ways open to us to increase the Voynichness ( ie.statistical properties ) of the result.
<.> Increase the complexity of the script_method.
- Invoke obfuscation or cipher techniques;
e.g. the addition of nulls - glyphs or words that act as filler, they have no inherent meaning within the text.
e.g. Nomenclators - where a plaintext entire word is substituted for a voynich word (vord).
- Parse the glyphs in different ways;
e.g. Reading the ligatures as characters in their own right.
- Abbreviations and shorthand.
- Et cetera
<.> On the other side of our imaginary equation we can modify the underlying_text.
- Select languages that themselves exhibit some voynichness;
e.g. Hawaiian for its low entropy.
e.g. Semitic languages for their anagrammability and word length.
- Particular styles of text;
e.g. Poems, Songs.
e.g. Hymns, Chants, Liturgies.
- Et cetera
We could then for instance,
try a 1-1 mapping as our script_method and take a language like Hawaiian as our underlying_text and because of its lower entropy we give it a higher score than latin say a 4 ,
then to increase the term further we could say our underlying_text is a poem in Hawaiian with +1 for using alliteration
and +1 for a syncopated rythmic structure resulting in a total score for the underlying_text of 6.
Giving us a result of (1)+(6)=7 in our imaginary equation.
And in this case by only increasing the complexity of our underlying_text we have arrived at something that
could then equal the complexity of the VMStext.
And because it is a simple sum type of equation the same can be done to the left side,
where we could include nulls and nomenclators to increase the script_method complexity.
Or again we could increase the complexity of script_method and underlying_text at the same time.
Of course all this is imaginary and no such equation exists it is just an aid to think about the problem.
Pondering upon what the underlying text would look like when/if a solution is ever found,
an analogy occurred to me as a way to think about the VMS text and all its statistical properties.
It maybe useful, maybe not, anyway for what it's worth here it is.
Imagine that we have an equation with "script_method" on one side and "underlying_text" on the other.
We treat the 2 methods as additive to result in the VMS text with all its peculiarities.
(script_method ) + ( underlying_text ) = VMStext
For instance:
underlying_text = Classical Latin prose
script_method = voynich font ( here by font i mean mapping latin letters to voynich glyphs )
( voynich font ) + ( Classical Latin prose ) = VMStext
Then we could give each term a number like this:
For the statistical properties of the VMS text we assign say a 7,
as using the voynich font is a basic script_method we assign it a 1,
and our underlying_text is Classical latin in prose so we give that a 1,
then we get (1) + (1) = 7 quite simply the sum does not add up.
However hard we try, any attempt to read the VMStext as Classical latin mapped simply 1-1 with Voynich glyphs results in gibberish.
Now armed with our imaginary equation,
there are 2 ways open to us to increase the Voynichness ( ie.statistical properties ) of the result.
<.> Increase the complexity of the script_method.
- Invoke obfuscation or cipher techniques;
e.g. the addition of nulls - glyphs or words that act as filler, they have no inherent meaning within the text.
e.g. Nomenclators - where a plaintext entire word is substituted for a voynich word (vord).
- Parse the glyphs in different ways;
e.g. Reading the ligatures as characters in their own right.
- Abbreviations and shorthand.
- Et cetera
<.> On the other side of our imaginary equation we can modify the underlying_text.
- Select languages that themselves exhibit some voynichness;
e.g. Hawaiian for its low entropy.
e.g. Semitic languages for their anagrammability and word length.
- Particular styles of text;
e.g. Poems, Songs.
e.g. Hymns, Chants, Liturgies.
- Et cetera
We could then for instance,
try a 1-1 mapping as our script_method and take a language like Hawaiian as our underlying_text and because of its lower entropy we give it a higher score than latin say a 4 ,
then to increase the term further we could say our underlying_text is a poem in Hawaiian with +1 for using alliteration
and +1 for a syncopated rythmic structure resulting in a total score for the underlying_text of 6.
Giving us a result of (1)+(6)=7 in our imaginary equation.
And in this case by only increasing the complexity of our underlying_text we have arrived at something that
could then equal the complexity of the VMStext.
And because it is a simple sum type of equation the same can be done to the left side,
where we could include nulls and nomenclators to increase the script_method complexity.
Or again we could increase the complexity of script_method and underlying_text at the same time.
Of course all this is imaginary and no such equation exists it is just an aid to think about the problem.