(25-06-2026, 11:32 AM)dashstofsk Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Trying to get everyone to agree is going to be impossible.
I don’t really see a problem there. For my part, when working with the VMS, I’m generally interested in approaches that don’t align with my own ideas. A change of perspective can sometimes be a valuable exercise, and often it’s not the entire idea but parts of it that are useful for my own work on the manuscript. New food for thought emerges, especially during a critical discussion.
In my opinion, what’s important is that opinions aren’t forced upon you (“it is this way and no other”). Debates that aim solely to impose one’s own views on the VMS are uninteresting in the long run and lead nowhere.
I agree that debates whose sole purpose is to impose one's own views are uninteresting and ultimately lead nowhere.
However, there is an even more troubling phenomenon. What about situations where no real debate takes place at all? Where an idea — for example, my own — is rejected a priori, without any serious engagement with the arguments, while the person presenting it is dismissed with insulting labels and derogatory remarks. Is that what we are supposed to call a discussion?
A genuine discussion involves examining and challenging arguments, not eliminating inconvenient viewpoints. One may disagree with a hypothesis, criticize it, or even reject it, but the first step should be to address the arguments themselves in a fair and substantive manner. When the response consists only of dismissal, ridicule, or personal attacks, the conversation ceases to be a debate.
In my view, that is the real road to nowhere. Such an attitude leads to intellectual stagnation and, ultimately, to a form of self-destructive dogmatism. When people are no longer willing to engage with alternative ideas, all that remains is an echo chamber in which existing beliefs are endlessly reinforced. That has little to do with critical inquiry or the search for understanding.
(25-06-2026, 06:15 PM)Gregor Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.What about situations where no real debate takes place at all? Where an idea — for example, my own — is rejected a priori, without any serious engagement with the arguments, while the person presenting it is dismissed with insulting labels and derogatory remarks.
Was it your idea that Brexit and the COVID pandemic are depicted in the Voynich MS?
Answering directly: yes — I treat this as my own interpretative hypothesis.
@ Gregor
For a theory to be discussed here in the forum, it must first be presented here in the forum. And experience shows that 99,9 percent of all the ideas presented here so far—which were previously announced with great fanfare—have turned out to be false theories extremely quickly. Prove us wrong.
(25-06-2026, 07:38 PM)JoJo_Jost Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.@ Gregor
For a theory to be discussed here in the forum, it must first be presented here in the forum. And experience shows that 99,9 percent of all the ideas presented here so far—which were previously announced with great fanfare—have turned out to be false theories extremely quickly. Prove us wrong.
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ah okay ouuups - then don't be surprised...
I am not working on a solution. Gave up on that a long time ago.