18-03-2016, 12:19 PM
It has at least one very practical use: in case a text is encrypted using a simple substitution cipher, the entropy values (all of them) do not change in the process.
As a side note, entropy values are also not changed by writing backwards.
Given that (some of) the entropy values in the Voynich MS text are anomalously low, either the source text has an anomalously low entropy, or the process to convert it to 'Voynichese' reduced it significantly.
This puts considerable constraints on all proposed solutions.
It is correct that the values are in a way relative, and should be interpreted as such.
The single character entropy is somewhat low, but the charactar pair entropy is the most significant anomaly, especially in comparison to this single character entropy.
This is not simply a problem of Eva. Eva was introduced two decades after Bennett pointed out the low entropy.
As a side note, entropy values are also not changed by writing backwards.
Given that (some of) the entropy values in the Voynich MS text are anomalously low, either the source text has an anomalously low entropy, or the process to convert it to 'Voynichese' reduced it significantly.
This puts considerable constraints on all proposed solutions.
It is correct that the values are in a way relative, and should be interpreted as such.
The single character entropy is somewhat low, but the charactar pair entropy is the most significant anomaly, especially in comparison to this single character entropy.
This is not simply a problem of Eva. Eva was introduced two decades after Bennett pointed out the low entropy.