[blam]

Scientific American did a hit piece on GWB last month so, I cancelled my subscription...anyway.

[nuconvert]

Pong

[Thumper1960]

Can't decipher it.

It must be gibberish.

Mystery solved.

Uh huh.

[ScottFromSpokane]

New analysis of a famously cryptic medieval document suggests that it contains nothing but gibberish

So, it's the medieval version of Kerry Kampaign talking points, then?

[RightWhale]

If Scientific American can't figure out something, it wouldn't be the first time.

[kingofrock]

i was sold when they said it had drawings of nude women

[gcruse]

Critics of this hypothesis have argued that Voynichese is too complex to be nonsense.

Complexity equals intelligibility?  Sounds like a bunch of creationists.
Hitler's diary was too interesting to be a hoax, until it was.
The Protocols of Zion are too detailed to be a crock, but they are.

[ScottFromSpokane]

An example from folio 78R of the manuscript reads: qokedy qokedy dal qokedy qokedy.

I had a car that sounded like that.

[KamperKen]

What exactly was the 'hit piece' that Scientific American published? I understand that they're behind all the left wing pseudoscientific causes like human-induced global warming.

[ClearCase_guy]

This absence of evidence does not prove that the manuscript was a hoax, but my work shows that the construction of a hoax as complex as the Voynich manuscript was indeed feasible. This explanation dovetails with several intriguing historical facts: Elizabethan scholar John Dee and his disreputable associate Edward Kelley visited the court of Rudolf II during the 1580s. Kelley was a notorious forger, mystic and alchemist who was familiar with Cardan grilles. Some experts on the Voynich manuscript have long suspected that Kelley was the author.

I don't find this convincing. Why? Because Dee and Kelley are known to have created fascinating works -- in a created language ("Enochian") and with a unique alphabet. But their manuscripts can be easily deciphered and do NOT contain gibberish.

So -- if you have something which cannot be deciphered, and which appears to be gibberish and which uses a completely different unique alphabet -- why ascribe it to Kelley and Dee? Because they are convenient? Is that science? And why assume its gibberish, just because you can't figure it out? Is that science?

[swilhelm73]

I don't buy it.

The argument is that there was a way to create repetitive gibberish in the time we believe the book to be written. One of the people associated with the book probably knew of this method, this combined with the inability to translate means it is just gibberish?

Here's a thought. What if is a series of encoded mantras. One would expect extreme repetition. Consider the "Hari Krishna" mantra;

Hari Krishna, Hari Krishna, Hari Hari, Krishna Krishna. Hari Rama, Hari Rama, Rama Rama, Krishna Krishna

Or perhaps even simpler, what if it is a short message encoded several different ways again and again?

Overall, I think that the common modern view that those in the past were idiots is rearing its ugly head here. We moderns can't translate it, and those idiots certainly couldn't have created a code we can't crack, so it must be mere gibberish.

[Joee]

Bet it's the location of the Lost Dutchman!

[Paradox]

Nice bit of work here actually, in the James Randi style. When trying to prove that something is NOT a hoax, get a good hoaxer to try to get the same results! Randi has debunked many psychics. Anyways, this guy goes and generates a code that is similar to Voynich. Does it prove that its a hoax? No, just that it COULD be, which contradicts the opinions of various researchers in the past. I'm not ready to call it a hoax yet, but I think its time to start sharpening ole Occams Razor.

[fso301]

This absence of evidence does not prove that the manuscript was a hoax, but my work shows that the construction of a hoax as complex as the Voynich manuscript was indeed feasible.

So, he doesn't claim the manuscript to be a hoax, just that it was possible in the era to have constructed a hoax of such sophistication.

[IncPen]

Ok... I admit it.

I wrote it.

I gave it to Al Gore and he turned it in as his thesis at Divinity School.

[Alouette]

I'm waiting for the Dan Brown novel to come out.

[facedown]

bump

[gdc314]

I'm not sure the experts ever decyphered the script found on Easter Island either...very interesting stuff.
gdc314

[Shooter 2.5]

btt

[Wormwood]

Allow me to summarize:

Voynich Manuscript, SAN 1/1d4, Cthulhu Mythos, 2% Spell Multiplier x2.

You're welcome.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Likewise from December 2003.

Pictures of the manuscript. (Some links from Google have been hijacked.)