Chinese theory -- Re: Cipher vs Language

[Jacques Guy <jguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

03/03/02 11:39:31, Jorge Stolfi <stolfi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

    
>Please, the Chinese theory does *not* ignore this information, quite
>the opposite. It specifically claims that the VMS author was either an
>European, or a native who embraced European culture and set out to
>produce an European-style book. (Again, history records plenty of
>examples of this sort thing.)

>In fact, the assumption of a western or westernizing author is not
>only a trivial explanation for the western look of the VMS, but also
>provides a good explanation for why the VMS was written in the Chinese
>language but not in Chinese characters. See my recent message on that.

Imagine that you are another Leonardo da Vinci writing down notes
about his discoveries (herbal recipes perhaps). You don't want others
to pry into them. Da Vinci wrote his notes as mirror images. Not
very secure encryption, that. You, however, have spent several year
in a distant country and have become fluent in two or three dialects
of the language spoken there (like everywhere else, dialects change from
village to village). I fact, let's make it simple and modern: _I_
have some years in Vanuatu, where I have learnt about traditional
herbal remedies. I am researching them, I know that it is all
dreadfully valuable. I don't want Pfizer or Glaxo to snaffle it
from me (like many discoverers and inventors I am paranoid about
my brainchild). I could encipher my notes, but it is slow, hard
work. And reading them back would also be slow, hard work. Much,
much easier to write them in Sakao. No other European
knows the language. In fact no-one knows it but the Sakao people
themselves. But what if someone identified the language? (There
are published wordlists of it). Oh, easy: I'll just cook up a
simple substitution cipher--my own personal alphabet in other
words. So, even if a literate native Sakao comes across my notes, 
he won't even recognize his own language. And whilst I am at it,
I'd better do something about the plants. I have spent years
gathering information about them, I know what they look like, so
I can afford to draw them a bit differently, to throw those Pfizer
spies off the track. They won't recognize them, I will. Oh, and
throw in a couple of red herrings too. A zodiac would be nice.
And I'll alternate between the two dialects of Sakao, that will
baffle them some more. With the odd sentence in Tolomako and in
Lehali. Piece of cake. My secrets are safe! And in 500 years
Sakao (and Tolomako, and Lehali) will either be extinct or
will have changed so much that my notes will appear to be in
a language like nothing else on Earth.