14-01-2022, 03:49 PM
16-01-2022, 05:56 PM
[duplicate post]
20-06-2022, 08:27 PM
Schiffer Publishing now advise that "Voynich Reconsidered" will be in their catalog for Fall 2023. I may receive a cover design and catalog entry sometime this summer (2022); if the publisher permits, I will share these.
14-01-2023, 09:49 PM
17-01-2023, 05:13 AM
I am now writing an additional chapter on the Voynich 2022 conference.
17-01-2023, 11:05 AM
21-01-2023, 10:13 AM
(17-01-2023, 11:05 AM)Ruby Novacna Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Did you present your results at the conference?
No, I could not make a submission to the conference as my book is at the galley stage.
First thoughts on some of the papers presented at the Voynich 2022 conference: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
28-01-2023, 02:53 AM
Robert,
I'm not saying this to pick on you, rather it seems an opportune time to make a significant point. In your latest Goodreads post you refer to ,"the two main strands of debate in Voynich research: namely, plaintext versus ciphertext, and meaning versus nonsense." With respect to that first strand:
From the point of view of bulk statistics of the text (entropy, etc.), any plaintext in some natural language written in some script is, in fact, a ciphertext -- it's a text that has been encrypted with a Caesar cipher with shift 0. If the Voynich text doesn't have the characteristics of something encrypted with a simple substitution cipher, then it also doesn't have the characteristics of a plaintext. The hypothesis that the Voynich text is a plaintext written in an unfamiliar script is nothing more than a special case of the hypothesis that it is a plaintext enciphered with a substitution cipher using an unfamiliar script. There is no "strand" to be had.
I don't say that to dismiss or ignore issues such as possible abbreviations or whether it's a phonetic rendering of an unfamiliar language, but to make the point -- taking such issues into account -- that from a statistical POV you can't meaningfully distinguish plaintext in an unfamiliar script from a substitution cipher using an unfamiliar script. They are equivalent hypotheses.
I'm not saying this to pick on you, rather it seems an opportune time to make a significant point. In your latest Goodreads post you refer to ,"the two main strands of debate in Voynich research: namely, plaintext versus ciphertext, and meaning versus nonsense." With respect to that first strand:
From the point of view of bulk statistics of the text (entropy, etc.), any plaintext in some natural language written in some script is, in fact, a ciphertext -- it's a text that has been encrypted with a Caesar cipher with shift 0. If the Voynich text doesn't have the characteristics of something encrypted with a simple substitution cipher, then it also doesn't have the characteristics of a plaintext. The hypothesis that the Voynich text is a plaintext written in an unfamiliar script is nothing more than a special case of the hypothesis that it is a plaintext enciphered with a substitution cipher using an unfamiliar script. There is no "strand" to be had.
I don't say that to dismiss or ignore issues such as possible abbreviations or whether it's a phonetic rendering of an unfamiliar language, but to make the point -- taking such issues into account -- that from a statistical POV you can't meaningfully distinguish plaintext in an unfamiliar script from a substitution cipher using an unfamiliar script. They are equivalent hypotheses.
21-02-2023, 09:34 PM
Mathematically that's correct, but from what I've seen in practice, generally when people consider it from the angle of "plaintext vs ciphertext" they don't think of maths, but rather of the underlying cultural case study. One case is when some guy from a land long lost to where no pathway goes writes a text in a now forgotten language, in an arcane script. The case when another guy enciphers commonplace Latin (Spanish, Greek etc.) with a substitution cipher is quite different.
Culturally, a cipher is a technique used to conceal. In this view, natural language written in some script is not a "cipher"text, and it has not been "encrypted", for cryptography is secret writing, and there is no secret in plain words put on paper.
Putting aside some most extravagant natural language theories, generally people are considering a forgotten language or (another case) an unknown script designed specifically for ethnic group having no their script of their own. Researchers pursuing or inclining to this strand may be linguists or people with some background in linguistics.
On the contrary, when people try to find substitution cipher solutions, that's mostly because they are novices in the VMS, and its perceived "simplicity" blinds them at first. A substitution cipher is the simplest cipher, so it's entertaining to seek for possible solutions, especially if they are limited to suggesting several keywords.
Just a passing note (I have not read the blog post above discussed).
Culturally, a cipher is a technique used to conceal. In this view, natural language written in some script is not a "cipher"text, and it has not been "encrypted", for cryptography is secret writing, and there is no secret in plain words put on paper.
Putting aside some most extravagant natural language theories, generally people are considering a forgotten language or (another case) an unknown script designed specifically for ethnic group having no their script of their own. Researchers pursuing or inclining to this strand may be linguists or people with some background in linguistics.
On the contrary, when people try to find substitution cipher solutions, that's mostly because they are novices in the VMS, and its perceived "simplicity" blinds them at first. A substitution cipher is the simplest cipher, so it's entertaining to seek for possible solutions, especially if they are limited to suggesting several keywords.
Just a passing note (I have not read the blog post above discussed).
21-02-2023, 09:55 PM
I never quite sure precisely what people mean when they use the term "substitution cipher". Do they just mean a cipher when each letter is substituted with a letter or symbol? Or do they include a more complex cipher with homophones, nulls, substring substitutions, word substitutions etc.