12-03-2026, 05:51 PM
It is a very hard problem—one that may have an answer of meaninglessness.
I'm personally of the opinion that we need to more regularly tackle the problem from the other direction and try to build generative models that can both preserve meaning and replicate the properties of Voynichese. If these models consistently fail, in consistent ways, then that tells us something important.
The Naibbe cipher can be seen as one such generative model. Its failures are instructive, particularly when it comes to the VMS's long-range correlations and line-position effects. If the VMS preserves meaning, the underlying text generation method needs to explain why these features of the manuscript naturally arise.
I'm personally of the opinion that we need to more regularly tackle the problem from the other direction and try to build generative models that can both preserve meaning and replicate the properties of Voynichese. If these models consistently fail, in consistent ways, then that tells us something important.
The Naibbe cipher can be seen as one such generative model. Its failures are instructive, particularly when it comes to the VMS's long-range correlations and line-position effects. If the VMS preserves meaning, the underlying text generation method needs to explain why these features of the manuscript naturally arise.