Re: VMs: Can one "prove" a hoax? - and a request.

["DANA SCOTT" <dscott520@xxxxxxx>]

Given that one possibility is that the VMS is a hoax. The answer to this
possibility is to just "prove" that it is a hoax. The same is true if it is
not a hoax, just "prove" that it is not a hoax.

Regards,
Dana Scott


----- Original Message -----
From: "Rafal T. Prinke" <rafalp@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 10:47 AM
Subject: Re: VMs: Can one "prove" a hoax? - and a request.


> Rene Zandbergen wrote:
>
> > At the same time, we have found (to the best
> > of my knowledge) not the merest piece of evidence
> > that the MS is a hoax. All possible signs of
> > randomness are lacking. All curves that have
> > been created to show some property of the text
> > (word lengths, entropies, zipf law, character
> > counts, what have you) show a reasonable shape.
> > Not a flat curve in sight.
>
> But you seem to assume that a hoax must have
> the features typical for glossolalia or "gibberish".
> I don't think a linguistic hoax would necessarily
> be like that.
>
> One of the obvious suspects is Kelley and perhaps
> it might be interesting to see the statistical
> properties of the two Enochian languages that we know
> he "produced" (either consciously, unconsciously
> or through angelic intervention).
>
> This would perhaps be far from hard proof, but if
> the relevant curves in those texts and the VMS
> look similar, it might suggest the same "mindset"
> of the author, or the same native language, or at least
> the same "psycholinguistic profile". My own competence
> in statistics shows the very flat curve you mention,
> so I cannot do that myself.
>
> Donald Laycock did statistical research on the Enochian
> which he mentions in the introduction to his Dictionary
> - but there are no details. Perhaps Jacques Guy knows
> more about the nature of Donald Laycock's computer analysis
> of the two Enochian languages?
>
> I silently assume that Enochian *is* considered a hoax
> - but there is no proof of it, either. I have Laycock's
> dictionary upstairs and am too lazy to go and check
> it right now, but I recall he concluded that the "second
> Enochian" (the one with English translations) had
> many features of a genuine language.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Rafal
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