21-09-2023, 05:52 PM
I hesitated to add to this discussion. Is it possible that part of the reason we're not seeing more research and more discoveries on the VM is that the research is being done deliberately away from the public forums?
As Scarecrow said, everyone has their VM windmills they're chasing. A better analogy may be to call this our white whale, our Moby Dick. It is difficult enough for us to continue our VM research, amateur or professional, today when we know great researchers have already tried and failed to solve this mystery over the past 100+ years since Voynich and even longer when considering the efforts of Baresch and Kircher and who knows how many others in the ownership timeline that we also haven't solved.
Now add to that how everyone has their own theory and when others present a different one, we tear it apart.
Don't get me wrong. This is what should happen: soliciting opinion from other researchers so we can find the flaws in our work so we move it along in the best direction in the hopes of finding truth and a resolution.
But it can be discouraging and the process itself, given the lack of progress over the years, may be causing some researchers to go underground, as it were, or simply give up. It's bad enough that we work hard at paying jobs all our adult lives that have us longing for retirement and umbrella drinks on a warm beach somewhere in the tropics. But VM research is a choice and it's all volunteer work. Nobody will earn that equally elusive retirement as a result of the work they do trying to solve even a part of the VM.
It's not all doom and gloom though. Published research may be slow right now but interest is not. Humans love a good mystery and the press and social media, not to mention the discussion boards, keep the VM in the public eye more than enough to keep churning interest and curiosity so new VM researchers are being added all the time.
And we should all regard the journey as its own reward. I think we're fooling ourselves if we think anyone is going to solve the VM anytime soon, let us alone that it be one of us. But we shouldn't give up because, regardless of success or failure, what we learn in the process - about science, about history, about humanity, about ourselves - is worth more than actually solving the VM.
For myself, and I am only an amateur researcher and a VM newbie at that, this is what keeps me going. I never expect to be more than a participant in the process. I fully expect to have many theories of my own and to have most, if not all, of them proven wrong. That has already happened. But even in the short time I've been researching the VM, I have learned so many fascinating things, my knowledge expanded. And for me that is more than enough justification and reward. I hope it is for everyone else involved as well.
New discoveries and more published research will happen as we gain access to improved tools and processes and digitized reference materials. We just need to be patient and give it the time it needs to happen. And keep researching while we wait. Some things will always remain a mystery but I truly believe the VM will be solved...eventually.
As Scarecrow said, everyone has their VM windmills they're chasing. A better analogy may be to call this our white whale, our Moby Dick. It is difficult enough for us to continue our VM research, amateur or professional, today when we know great researchers have already tried and failed to solve this mystery over the past 100+ years since Voynich and even longer when considering the efforts of Baresch and Kircher and who knows how many others in the ownership timeline that we also haven't solved.
Now add to that how everyone has their own theory and when others present a different one, we tear it apart.
Don't get me wrong. This is what should happen: soliciting opinion from other researchers so we can find the flaws in our work so we move it along in the best direction in the hopes of finding truth and a resolution.
But it can be discouraging and the process itself, given the lack of progress over the years, may be causing some researchers to go underground, as it were, or simply give up. It's bad enough that we work hard at paying jobs all our adult lives that have us longing for retirement and umbrella drinks on a warm beach somewhere in the tropics. But VM research is a choice and it's all volunteer work. Nobody will earn that equally elusive retirement as a result of the work they do trying to solve even a part of the VM.
It's not all doom and gloom though. Published research may be slow right now but interest is not. Humans love a good mystery and the press and social media, not to mention the discussion boards, keep the VM in the public eye more than enough to keep churning interest and curiosity so new VM researchers are being added all the time.
And we should all regard the journey as its own reward. I think we're fooling ourselves if we think anyone is going to solve the VM anytime soon, let us alone that it be one of us. But we shouldn't give up because, regardless of success or failure, what we learn in the process - about science, about history, about humanity, about ourselves - is worth more than actually solving the VM.
For myself, and I am only an amateur researcher and a VM newbie at that, this is what keeps me going. I never expect to be more than a participant in the process. I fully expect to have many theories of my own and to have most, if not all, of them proven wrong. That has already happened. But even in the short time I've been researching the VM, I have learned so many fascinating things, my knowledge expanded. And for me that is more than enough justification and reward. I hope it is for everyone else involved as well.
New discoveries and more published research will happen as we gain access to improved tools and processes and digitized reference materials. We just need to be patient and give it the time it needs to happen. And keep researching while we wait. Some things will always remain a mystery but I truly believe the VM will be solved...eventually.
![[+]](https://www.voynich.ninja/images/collapse_collapsed.png)