What if the images are entirely like the text, various scenarios.

[Koen G]

This thread is meant as a thought experiment. I like to do those as an exercise to expand the box that inevitably starts to form around my VM thoughts. It is not about what we believe to be possible, but about what we could expect under certain conditions.

I usually think from images to text, that is, if we can understand the imagery perfectly, we should in theory have a better shot at understanding the text. But what if we turn this around? There are various scenarios for what the text is like. What should we expect of the images if - just for this exercise - we assume that they are the same as the text, informed by the same principles? For example:

1. The text could be an illiterate culture/language's first attempt at writing in its own writing system. In this case, and remember that for this exercise we imagine that the images belong to the same sphere as the text, what would we expect? Every culture has an artistic component, this was already true in the Stone Age. So we would expect part of that artistic tradition to shine through in the imagery. If we take into account the stylistic properties of Voynichese, chances are this culture is not European - probably Asian? So given the premise of this thread, the imagery should have Asian influences. But it doesn't, at least not in an in-your-face way. So if we have Asian text, with non-Asian images, what happened?
   
   
2. A one-to-one simple substitution of a European language. Just kidding, this is an unlikely option.
   
   
3. A more complex cipher. I use the word cipher here with purpose, because it carries within it the intention to obfuscate. If the same principles apply to the imagery, this would mean it is obfuscated as well, it does not speak plainly. Whether this is done out of fear, secrecy, exercise or boredom doesn't really matter. If the imagery is like a complex cipher, what can we expect of it?
   
   
4. Nonsense made to look like it has meaning. In this case, given the condition that text and imagery are the same, both would be like a well-constructed Rorschach test.
   
   

I probably missed a few?

With the VM, we are facing the longest, most enigmatic pre-modern undeciphered text, and its imagery is equally hard to understand. If the entire MS is the product one one mind (or, as we know with near certainty now, a collective of minds), then may similar principles underlie the strangeness of both?