(16-06-2026, 11:25 PM)ReneZ Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (16-06-2026, 06:26 PM)JustAnotherTheory Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Here is the MD5 of the main proposition
This isn't common practice, and I hope it doesn't become common practice.
I guess I am guilty for starting this thing, with my "DAIIN MEAN USES" anagram. I though it was fun, and fit for this forum, to use a method for securing priority that was often used by scientists like Galileo and Huygens in the 1600s or so. But some people said anagrams were too amateurish and I should have used MD5 or whatever instead; while others did just did not like it at all.
Apart from the method, theft of ideas unfortunately does happen in all sciences. Bob finds out about Alice's discovery before she has the chance to publish it, and rushes to publish it first as his own. Two notable examples are the identification of the HIV virus and the discovery of cold fusion. In the latter case the thief was one of the reviewers who was assigned to evaluate the victim's paper.
All the best, stolfi
The thing with Voynich solutions is that they are always so specific to their inventor that there is 0% chance of them being stolen before proper publication. I understand that sometimes people may see something and think "oh no, this is so obvious, I must claim this insight quickly before anyone else notices!". But I've never seen a case where such a feeling would have been justified.
@ Koen
Of course, there hasn't been a solution yet anyway
But it's actually the other way around. Even if someone came up with a solution—or even just a logic structure—no one would accept it right away, because we can rule one thing out: there will NOT be an easy solution!
I am convinced that as soon as someone is on the right track, we will notice right away. Allow me to indulge in Homeric simile.
Currently, the Voynich text is like a patient in a dark room. Pitch-black. We're looking in from the outside, through a sound-proof one-way mirror, so all communication between us and the patient is impossible. It's our job to prescribe the appropriate cure for the patient's unknown affliction.
Traditional solvers try to sing various types of songs in all possible languages. We know that singing songs has no effect because the patient cannot even see or hear us. But they keep trying anyway, their preference being Eurovision-style linguistic potpourris. Many think that trying some different dialect from three towns over will make all the difference, even though they're still just singing to themselves, only with slightly different vowel qualities.
This is where we're currently at. Believe me that we will notice when someone finds the light switch.
(18-06-2026, 10:41 AM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I am convinced that as soon as someone is on the right track, we will notice right away.
...
This is where we're currently at. Believe me that we will notice when someone finds the light switch.
I agree. Some solvers describe the forum attitude as "too quick to dismiss new theories" and "not able to support a constructive discussion", while what I see is exactly the opposite. People here are willing to write many pages of posts discussing approaches that are highly unlikely, just because of a slim chance this may lead somewhere.
JoJo_Jost Wrote:we can rule one thing out: there will NOT be an easy solution!
Easy in what way? I think if there is a solution, it's will likely be easy to explain, if not to follow. After all, I don't think a lot of concepts of the XV century have been irreversibly lost, so I don't think someone back there would have been able to come up with something that we won't easily comprehend nowadays. The problem is identifying what it is, and once we know what it is, it should be relatively easy to explain. Conversely, I think that solutions that are hard to explain are likely wrong.
(18-06-2026, 10:41 AM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I am convinced that as soon as someone is on the right track, we will notice right away. Allow me to indulge in Homeric simile.
I know for sure that that will not be the case.
All the best, --stolfi
(18-06-2026, 10:41 AM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I am convinced that as soon as someone is on the right track, we will notice right away. Allow me to indulge in Homeric simile.
I've become pretty good at noticing when people think they are on the right way
(I may not be alone).
