I agree with the article that if the VM were in a cipher in the absolutely most narrow possible sense, that we would have probably understood it better already.
But then, like Sam says, he dismisses the other option way too easily by saying that unknown scripts are basically ciphers. The idea behind this seems to be that any unknown script will:
What the author says is basically "it's a cipher or it's fake, and I don't understand it so it must be fake".
But there are so many other options. What if it was a now forgotten pidgin? A pidgin is a "language" that comes to exist when a number of groups who share no common language have to interact with each other (usually for trading). I'm pasting this from the wiki, see how many properties of Voynichese you can spot:
And what if the script also came into existence in a similar way, to represent this pidgin in a way that all involved could read with some ease? And what if it evolved organically over time? Would this still be a simple, easy to understand cipher?
(This is not what I say it must be, but it is one of the scenarios I find most likely. I just like to give a concrete example.)
But then, like Sam says, he dismisses the other option way too easily by saying that unknown scripts are basically ciphers. The idea behind this seems to be that any unknown script will:
- convert a relatively normal text
- in a language that we understand
- in a way that we understand
What the author says is basically "it's a cipher or it's fake, and I don't understand it so it must be fake".
But there are so many other options. What if it was a now forgotten pidgin? A pidgin is a "language" that comes to exist when a number of groups who share no common language have to interact with each other (usually for trading). I'm pasting this from the wiki, see how many properties of Voynichese you can spot:
Quote:Pidgins are usually less morphologically complex but more syntactically rigid than other languages, usually have less morphosyntactic irregularities than other languages, and often consist of:
- Uncomplicated clausal structure (e.g., no embedded clauses, etc.)
- Reduction or elimination of syllable codas
- Reduction of consonant clusters or breaking them with epenthesis
- Basic vowels, such as [a, e, i, o, u]
- No tones, such as those found in West African, Asian and many North American Indigenous languages
- Use of separate words to indicate tense, usually preceding the verb
- Use of reduplication to represent plurals, superlatives, and other parts of speech that represent the concept being increased
- A lack of morphophonemic variation
And what if the script also came into existence in a similar way, to represent this pidgin in a way that all involved could read with some ease? And what if it evolved organically over time? Would this still be a simple, easy to understand cipher?
(This is not what I say it must be, but it is one of the scenarios I find most likely. I just like to give a concrete example.)