Paths to Decipherment

[HermesRevived]

In the end, if it can be solved, it will be solved by a guess. 

In other problems, we might guess that the hierogylyphs with a circle around them are important and guess that they might be the name of a Pharoah. And be right.

Or we might guess that the double glyph in a cipher is the double letter LL because that is common in English. And be right.

Isn't that what AI does, after all? An LLM guesses what word comes next. It just gets very good at guessing - and that is what we call intelligence. 

Human beings are very good (and creative) at guessing, and at ways of improving their guesses. (We're not talking about baseless guesses, but educated guesses, the guesses of the duly prepared.)  

I honestly think that one day - if it can be solved at all - someone (most likely after long study and reflection and frustration) will make the right guess and the solution will become clear. They will find the key and the door will be unlocked. But it will involve a leap, an insight, a hunch, that only a human being - the best guessing of creatures - can make, and it will seem almost like an accident.