Re: VMs: crypto with non-alphabethic scripts (slightly OT)

[c1tk@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Hello all,

I guess I should introduce myself first... I am a student from Singapore,
and I heard about the VMS from Baez's web site. I find it quite interesting,
and also rather intriguing (for one thing, it is almost as if there is an
outside force, trying to prevent the world from giving a date to the
manuscript...).

[Anders, Claus:]

> I just wondered, if there is information about encrypting of ideographic
> scripts (like Kanji/Hanzi or other non alpfa scripts)? Or are all known
> methods based on an alpha-numeric mapping?

It seems there are no methods for encrypting general text, but "Liutao" and
"Wujing Zongyao" do outline some methods for transmitting military
information, e.g. secret sharing (splitting a secret message into several
portions, which are then distributed to different people) and code books
(single characters are used to denote different military situations).

Then again, phonemic scripts have been known to the Chinese before the Ming
Dynasty, so it is not too anachronistic to imagine an ancient Chinese
writing the VMS using such a script. However, such a phonetic transcription
will have to be based on archaic -- possibly dialectal -- pronunciations,
rather than modern ones. Also, one will still have to explain the
Western-style drawings in the manuscript...

Thanks,
-- 
GPG:f75949318a026c5707ff188b438cca87faf73a82 http://www.alpha-beta.org/tk/
GCS/MU d- s: a- C++() UL P++(+++) L++(+++) E- W++ N(+) o K? w--- O? M? V?   
PS(+) PE Y+ PGP+ t? 5? X- R- tv-() b+ DI(+) D+ G e++ h-- !r>+++ !y
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