29-05-2017, 11:25 PM
(This post was last modified: 30-05-2017, 12:34 AM by Torsten.
Edit Reason: typo removed
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(29-05-2017, 10:17 PM)Koen Gh. wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I think something like auto-copying cannot be proven, and it can only be proven wrong if someone ever manages to "read" the text in a convincing way. So at the moment I must say that it could be right, So to be completely honest, my objections against it are more based on feeling than on evidence, since the evidence does not allow us to push either solution.
A main objection is that it would just be an awful lot of work for nothing. People just don't do this. For a similar reason it cannot be a complex cipher either because it is already the largest known historical "ciphertext" by far.
Anyway, to get back to the topic of natural language, I'm still a bit confused about that term. When people say "it can't be natural language", don't they rather mean "it can't be language that is written in a known, natural way"?
I argue that the auto-copying method is enough to explain the features of the Voynich manuscript. It is indeed impossible to prove that something is meaningless. For instance we both could agree that someday I will send you an unreadable message and that this message mean something if it starts with the word ‘fachys’ and something else if it starts with the word ‘kchsy’. In this case the two words would mean something to you even if you cant read the text itself. It is also possible to use for instance the Bacon cipher to hide a message within a meaningless text (see You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.). Therefore it is for sure impossible to prove that the Voynich manuscript is meaningless. My point is that the auto-copying method is only efficient in generating a meaningless text. There is no advantage in using an auto-copyied text for hiding a message in it.
It was not work for nothing. Marci wrote in his letter that Rudolf II spent 600 ducats on that book. If the intention of the scribe was to write a book to sell it to Rudolf he needed an efficient method to fill the book with some text. In this case the auto-copying method was a intuitive method since it is far easier to copy something then to invent something new.
The term natural language is used to distinguish between a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and a You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..