VMs: Re: DIE WELTWOCHE

["John Grove" <John@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    First off, I've got to say I'm impressed with the response to this one
email. A good
indication that the lull is only happenstance - we're all still here and
still dabbling away
at one project or another...

> 1. Do people out there think a solution is imminent? Where will it come
> from?
    I'd love that to be true - I can't predict the future, but until someone
manages to
find that first key (which could happen by accident - like some soldier
recognizing a
stone that contains three languages on it being somewhat important) we'll
all keep
hacking away at it.

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

    It's a puzzle - true puzzle lovers gotta get hooked.

>
> 3. The list seems to be in a lull; does that mean people are frustrated?
>
    As per my intro above - and as everyone else has said one way or
another... we're still working on the puzzle,
but none of us are making a living at it.

> 4. How serious is the research that has been done lately?
>
    All research, whether simply trial and error attacks at the same old
concepts is good research in my opinion.


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

    May be, but I doubt it. I think the only hoaxes are some of the
solutions that people have tried to produce to date and
have unfortunately in some cases seriously convinced themselves but no one
else.

>
> 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 tend to think in linguistics rather than cipher - and whether
East-Asian or otherwise I would expect a solution to come from
the discovery of a Rosetta stone or some linguistic fluke. That said;
however, cipher may well be a further complication to deal with - we simply
can't exclude most of these theories as yet. I agree that any text of this
size must contain numerical elements - whether spelled out or symbolized >
who knows?


>
> 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 think most of us would love the opportunity to have a serious
round-table discussion on this - but the beauty of the internet is that no
matter how far apart we actually live (in geography, education, social
status, etc...) - we get equal billing on the net. Everyone gets listened
to - some of them even get responses - like this one.

John.
>
> Thank you very much for any reply
> Christoph Neidhart

    No, thank you for taking an interest in our little discussion group.