Historical Context

[RenegadeHealer]

Now quite a few people think that statistics are in principle useless, but please keep in mind that modern linguists work very intensively with statistics.

It blows my mind just a little, that anyone could think that statistics could and would offer no valuable clues about the VMs. Not only is linguistics heavily indebted to statistics, but so are cryptography, information science, semiotics, symbology, history, archaeology, physical and chemical material analysis — most of the fields of inquiry that offer helpful potentially helpful tools and case file precedents for approaching this mystery. My only regret since picking up this hobby is not paying much, much more attention in statistics class in graduate school. So this kind of sentiment is always a real, Uhh... do you even surf, brah? kind of moment for me.

Just because no one has cracked the mystery yet with statics, code processing, or some other kind of mathematics, it does not logically follow that these tools will not or cannot crack it. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Cranks who approach the VMs and downplay the value of statistics in analyzing it are usually, in my experience, crying sour grapes. They're not knowledgeable about statistics or good with them, and don't care to become so. They resent the fact that VMs researchers who are good with statistics get their ideas taken seriously, but researchers who bring very different kinds of talents and experience to the table, not necessarily.