+- The Voynich Ninja (https://www.voynich.ninja)
+-- Forum: Voynich Research (https://www.voynich.ninja/forum-27.html)
+--- Forum: Voynich Talk (https://www.voynich.ninja/forum-6.html)
+--- Thread: Why the Voynich Manuscript Text Hasn't Been Deciphered – and Why It Never Will (/thread-4906.html)
Pages:
1
2
Why the Voynich Manuscript Text Hasn't Been Deciphered – and Why It Never Will - Gregor - 03-09-2025
For over a century, the greatest minds – from Friedmann to modern artificial intelligence algorithms – have been trying to decipher the text of the Voynich Manuscript. And for over a century, they all have ended the same way: helplessness. Some have seen it as a Romance language, others as an Aztec language, still others as a medical or astrological treatise. No theory has stood the test of time.
I don't want to belittle anyone or diminish the researchers' efforts; on the contrary – I admire their passion and perseverance. However, the problem lies in the premise itself: everyone is stubbornly staring at the letters. Yet the text could be a deliberate veil, a labyrinth intended to entrap those seeking meaning.
In my opinion, the true code is hidden in the illustrations. Semiology suggests: sign, symbol, ideogram. Plants, bodies, diagrams – these are the ones that convey meaning. The text serves more as decoration than as a carrier of information.
A few years ago, I proposed viewing the herbal section as a kind of compendium of history – from the Big Bang, through the evolution of life, the birth of civilization, to the present and the future. Every root, leaf, and flower is a record of events. It's the medieval equivalent of the Pioneer's golden plaque, a testimony left for future generations.
Researchers are therefore battling not a simple cipher, but something I would call a multi-level intelligence from 600 years ago, created by people with access to a source of knowledge that we cannot clearly understand today. Therefore, all traditional methods – whether linguistic, cryptographic, or computer – may prove insufficient.
And here we come to the crux of the matter. The Voynich Manuscript will likely never be cracked using either classical or digital methods. This isn't because the researchers are incompetent – they are exceptional – but because we are dealing with a structure that has transcended classical boundaries from the outset. The text will deceive endlessly, and the solution lies in the images. Deciphering them requires not only intellect but also a different perspective - one that allows us to view signs and symbols as a language in themselves.
My post should therefore be considered a polemic, an invitation to a shift in perspective. This is not to undermine the efforts of others, but to point out that in the game of the Voynich Manuscript, the winner will not be the one who calculates and encodes, but the one who can read the symbols and images. Because this book was not created to be broken by the methods of reason, but to open the way to a different kind of knowledge.
RE: Why the Voynich Manuscript Text Hasn't Been Deciphered – and Why It Never Will - Jorge_Stolfi - 03-09-2025
(03-09-2025, 05:29 PM)Gregor Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.For over a century, the greatest minds – from Friedmann to modern artificial intelligence algorithms – have been trying to decipher the text of the Voynich Manuscript.
More like six centuries...
RE: Why the Voynich Manuscript Text Hasn't Been Deciphered – and Why It Never Will - Gregor - 03-09-2025
(03-09-2025, 09:22 PM)Jorge_Stolfi Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.(03-09-2025, 05:29 PM)Gregor Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.For over a century, the greatest minds – from Friedmann to modern artificial intelligence algorithms – have been trying to decipher the text of the Voynich Manuscript.
More like six centuries...
Although the manuscript is already six centuries old, scientific attempts to decipher it only began in modern times.
RE: Why the Voynich Manuscript Text Hasn't Been Deciphered – and Why It Never Will - ReneZ - 04-09-2025
(03-09-2025, 05:29 PM)Gregor Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.This isn't because the researchers are incompetent – they are exceptional – but because we are dealing with a structure that has transcended classical boundaries from the outset.
I imagined having this text read by one of the standard AI voices in youtube. Works.
RE: Why the Voynich Manuscript Text Hasn't Been Deciphered – and Why It Never Will - Rafal - 04-09-2025
Quote:And here we come to the crux of the matter. The Voynich Manuscript will likely never be cracked using either classical or digital methods.
This isn't because the researchers are incompetent – they are exceptional – but because we are dealing with a structure that has transcended classical boundaries from the outset. The text will deceive endlessly, and the solution lies in the images. Deciphering them requires not only intellect but also a different perspective -
one that allows us to view signs and symbols as a language in themselves.
If intellect isn't enough then what else do you suggest? Prayer, meditation, ayahuasca?
By the way, looking for hidden meanings in the pictures can be really deceitful. I remember at some moment Nick Pelling claimed that plants in VM are in fact obfuscated schemes of some mechanisms. Now he doesn't like to speak about it
RE: Why the Voynich Manuscript Text Hasn't Been Deciphered – and Why It Never Will - nablator - 04-09-2025
C'mon... not again.
Please stop posting AI slop.
RE: Why the Voynich Manuscript Text Hasn't Been Deciphered – and Why It Never Will - Gregor - 04-09-2025
The problem with the Voynich Manuscript does not lie in a lack of intellect, but in the way we look at its content. The text is only part of the whole – the real information is hidden in the images and symbols. To perceive it, one must combine analytical thinking with pattern recognition, the ability to read between the signs, and openness to unconventional solutions. Intellect is necessary, but not sufficient on its own – sensitivity to structure and the meaning beyond the letters also matters.
It seems that Pelling intuitively hit the mark, but then decided it was better not to talk about it. After all, the Voynich Manuscript has a way of deceiving even the best researchers – it’s easy to fall into the trap of one’s own interpretations. Suggesting that the images are ‘obscured schematics of mechanisms’ may have been too bold, too uncomfortable, or simply too difficult to prove. I am proving it.
RE: Why the Voynich Manuscript Text Hasn't Been Deciphered – and Why It Never Will - Jorge_Stolfi - 04-09-2025
(03-09-2025, 09:34 PM)Gregor Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Although the manuscript is already six centuries old, scientific attempts to decipher it only began in modern times.
Barschius was at least a bit obsessed about the VMS, enough to write to Kircher for help. He must have spent a lot of time trying to "decipher" it.
Marci, considered a bona fide Scientist, apparently tried to do so after he inherited the book. It has been claimed that the three-column letter table on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is in his handwriting. But he may not have spent much time on it, considering that his eyesight was failing and had to let his secretary write his letters. I guess that Marci showed the book to Raphael Mnishowski because of the latter's fame as an expert cryptographer.
Kircher possibly tried too, but as a very busy man he must have spent even less time on it than Marci.
After that the VMS probably sat gathering dust and mites on Kircher's library shelves for a century or so. But considering that Petr Beckx chose it as one of the books that deserved to be saved from confiscation, it is possible that he and/or other Jesuit Professors at the Collegio Romano also puzzled on it, even before 1860. (The Jesuits, like Kircher, were the scholars of the Church, and thus interested in all sorts of "scientific" stuff.)
All the best, --jorge
RE: Why the Voynich Manuscript Text Hasn't Been Deciphered – and Why It Never Will - RobGea - 04-09-2025
Re: the post above : Zero historical evidence.
RE: Why the Voynich Manuscript Text Hasn't Been Deciphered – and Why It Never Will - Gregor - 04-09-2025
All the best, --jorge
[/quote]
Thanks, Jorge. All the best to you too. --Gregor