VMs: Re: DIE WELTWOCHE

[Jim Gillogly <jim@xxxxxxx>]

Speaking only for myself, I'll attempt a few answers:

Christoph Neidhart wrote:
> 1. Do people out there think a solution is imminent? Where will it come
> from?

I think it's not imminent -- if there is a solution,
my guess is that it will require lengthy slogging rather
than an "aha!" breakthrough.  On the other hand, if it
is a cipher in a known language (unlikely, I think), then
it will wait for the "aha!" and then go from "no info" to
"all info" in days.

> 2. How do people one get hooked on the Voynich? I saw some notions
> of terrible addiction.

Part of it, I think, is a sense that we are now much more
advanced cryptologically, linguistically and computationally than
the author of the Voynich Ms.  Hubris, I suppose.  We should be
able to crack any cipher that was created back then if we have
enough material.  In the Voynich we have plenty of material, so
if it's a cipher we should have been done decades ago.  Another
part is that it's mysterious: the illustrations lend a surreal
complexity to it that suggests deep and interesting rewards for
the person who cracks it.  Yet another part is hype: it's
billed as the most mysterious manuscript in the world, and
the person who can read it and convince the rest of us that
she or he has read it will be famous... at least in a small
circle of scholars.

It's easy to get started, like learning the rules of go: the
penmanship is for the most part quite clear, even if we don't
have a clear idea of how the letters are segmented -- but the
buy-in cost is quite cheap, and there appears at first glance
to be enough legible text on any good plate of text (such as
the one in David Kahn's "The Codebreakers" that introduced
me to the Voynich) for a beginning cryptanalyst to crack it.
By the time each cryppie has done this and found their error,
they're hooked.

Puzzle-solving is addictive for certain kinds of people in any
case.  I have no statistics to back this up, but anecdotally it
seems to me that cryppies will often go into a brown study and
tune out the rest of the world while trying to crack a difficult
cipher or system.  Whether or not this is healthy behavior
depends on how badly the world needs that particular cipher solved.

> 3. The list seems to be in a lull; does that mean people are frustrated?

Some are probably frustrated, but probably many are simply working
on other things.  I first started looking at the Voynich Ms. over
30 years ago, but have seldom spent more than a week out of any
given three months working on it.  This list goes in clumps -- at the
moment several of the leading authorities are in real-life transitions.
I have no reason to believe the current lull (averaging perhaps a
couple of messages per day) indicates that the research has played
out -- at some points in the list's 10-year career, especially back
when there was a "summer vacation" effect on the Net, there were no
posts for weeks.

> 4. How serious is the research that has been done lately?

Quite serious, in my opinion.  I think more has been learned about
the history and structure of the manuscript in the past five years
than in the previous two decades.  I'll cite as a few examples
the discovery of the Baresch connection, the availability of complete
transcriptions and a concerted effort to identify the botanical
illustrations.

> 5. Are there people out there who still think the ms. is a hoax?

Yes.

> 5. Some people seem to lean toward the idea that its language is a
> monosyllabic East-Asian language such as Chinese or Vietnamese; what
> are the arguments and counter-arguments?

I'll pass on this one, but will note an advocate of this view must
explain the apparent European clothing in a couple of illustrations.

> 6. Does the Voynich-community ever meet in the real world, or is this 
> solely
> an Internet-community? How many people are involved in the deciphering
> on a regular basis? Are you friends?

I met one of the leading list members some years after we began
corresponding about the Voynich, and visited one of the earlier
researchers at her agency twice in the 1970s.  I know others
have met each other; but I believe the Internet was essential in
organizing and coordinating the current effort... to the extent
that it is organized and coordinated!

Good luck with your article.
--
	Jim Gillogly
	Hevensday, 15 Forelithe S.R. 2002, 01:29
	12.19.9.5.5, 10 Chicchan 18 Zip, Sixth Lord of Night