University of Florida, book signing August 8, 2026

[bi3mw]

At least, the biographies of the two authors ( Amazon ) suggest that they have strived to maintain a certain standard. The book’s title, however, is somewhat sensationalist and absolute. It is impossible to say to what extent this is reflected in their work.

[Jacob Carolus]

At least, the biographies of the two authors ( Amazon ) suggest that they have strived to maintain a certain standard. The book’s title, however, is somewhat sensationalist and absolute. It is impossible to say to what extent this is reflected in their work.

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[JoJo_Jost]

Given the structural characteristics I have measured over the past few months, a one-to-one substitution seems strong unlikely to me. The text is highly organized at the glyph level: there are distinct glyph families, and the number of strokes ( e,ee,eee, i, ii, iii) is part of the symbol’s identity rather than a free variation. Any proposed substitution must take this structure into account, yet this work does not address it at all.

The general point is simpler. A simple substitution preserves the statistical properties. Such a claim therefore implies that the plaintext exhibits the statistical profile of the Voynich text. This claim is never tested here—the key is applied to a few dozen lines and a series of labels, but never to contiguous text.

I cannot read Arabic, so I cannot assess the lexical aspect. However, the objection does not depend on Arabic: the issue is whether the proposed system is compatible with the structure of the ciphertext. The proof is missing and, by all accounts, will never be able to be provided.

[JoJo_Jost]

as i said: eisegesis in its best:

Words, Line 1:
1 die, live, stay; be buried | 2 death | 3 and | 4a agree | 4b what, which/any | 5 join | 6a fly off | 6b souls waiting for release | 7a accept | 7b mercy | 8 Cathars (and 8 is missing)

TRANSLATION:
Although buried and [facing] death, the Cathar (souls) are joined [by the Qadi] and agree to accept any mercy, and the waiting souls fly off to live again.


also nice: messenger, runner, dispatch rider [i.e. souls, waiting for release] 

I'm out of here...

   
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[bi3mw]

Yes, @JoJo_Jost, your fundamental criticism is spot on.  The paper has already been discussed in the thread that @DG97EEB linked to in post #6. It’s highly unlikely that the basic approach to “decryption” in the book, which is over 500 pages long, has changed significantly with regard to the paper.

[Jacob Carolus]

It blows my mind that so many different ideas exist, all 'convincingly' presented. 
One of the authors is 'an interdisciplinary scholar of gender, language and literature, and culture studies. She holds a Ph.D. in English'...
That time you published a 500+ page book.... and it really doesn't make sense.
Even a full-blown amateur, and I can see it.

The question was who was first with hallucinations, humans or Ai. (and that applies to many existing translations of existing works)

[LiviuV]

One of the authors is 'an interdisciplinary scholar of gender, language and literature, and culture studies. She holds a Ph.D. in English'...

LOL, this reminds me of Fravia's article about evaluating sources:

We sat there waiting and ziemlich gespannt, January, quite cold in Berlin, but, after all, that was the reason we were there: Sielaff was still teaching, against all political odds.
And he came, with his classical quarter of an hour "academic delay"... He came "herein" leaning on one side, because he carried at least a dozen books under his left arm, and then he sat down, without even looking at us, and let all his books fall on the teacher's desk.
Mind you, this was the most cherished post-university course for historians of the early middle ages in Europe in those days, so you can imagine how silent and attentive we all (students from all over Europe) were...
He still did not look at us. "These books" - he began - "deal all, more or less, with the same subject: a history of Danemark in the middle ages. Now please try to supersede the subject: actually the subject could be completely different, it would not matter in the least per se: the point is that you should bei Gelegenheit learn how to EVALUATE all kind of books BEFORE buying and/or reading them (to do it afterwards is not easy either, by the way, but at least that kind of evaluation requires more obvious skills)."
Sielaff looked sharply at his audience. "I imagine" - he said - "that you already know that most of the books... and data... around us are next to useless, don't you?"
Dunnow about the others, but this took me by surprise: I had always thought, naïvely enough, that anything that was published must have had some sort of "value".
"This book..." - Sielaff began, taking the first book out of his pile - "...is titled, quite appropriately for our today example: 'History of Danemark in the Middle ages'..." - he paused and looked at us - "...unfortunately, the Author, as stated by himself in the introduction, does not know danish at all, therefore... " - he suddendly threw the book on a far corner of the teaching desk in disgust.

You can read the rest here, it's short, sweet and very much worth your time:

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[Jacob Carolus]

LOL, this reminds me of Fravia's article about evaluating sources:

The irony of it is; of course; interesting...  so many people trying to figure out if the other people could figure out if the original authors had any clue. : )

[Koen G]

Since this event happened, I moved it out of "news".