VMs: To know vs. to assume

[Rene Zandbergen <r_zandbergen@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- GC <glenclaston@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Rene wrote:

> > It depends on what you're counting. If, like
> > in the VMs, you're counting shapes (glyphs) then
> > it doesn't matter which one doubles for which
> other
> > ones. In the VMs we wouldn't even know.
> 
> That, my friend, is a defeatist attitude.  We CAN,
> and WILL know the answer
> to this question.  

Well, right now we don't know, and I mean 'know'
as opposed to 'guess'.

To 'deduce' is fine, but if the deduction is not
agreeable to some significant part of the people
who try to follow it, it is by definition
contested and then I would not count it as 
knowledge. 

Having made my own catalogue of 'weirdoes', as
the rare VMs characters (glyphs, not people)
used to be called, I really agree with your 
classification. There are 'mutants', there
are truly new shapes, there are ligatures of
common characters, and there are ligatures
involving new shapes. One can make different
subdivisions, but not all weirdoes are equally
weird.

But I'm still careful. When I started to learn
reading the Thai alphabet, I wondered why on
earth very similar-looking characters would
have a completely different pronunciation (including
different tone rules). It was just a matter of
having a small loop in addition or an extra
notch somewhere. But I know I shouldn't have
complained (even if it was internally and nobody
heard me), because the Latin capital E is like an
F with an additional bar, but has nothing to do
with it. Likewise, Q is not a modified O. And D
isn't either.

Everytime we assume something, we narrow the 
area of unknowns. But at the same time we may
have put the answer outside our field of view.

Why has nobody found the solution to the VMs yet?

- Perhaps there is no solution (it is just noise)
If there is:
- Perhaps it is impossible to retrieve (lost
  language, irreversible encryption)
If it can be retrieved:
- Perhaps it was simply too difficult for all those
  who have tried up to now (like the above case,
  but there is still hope)
If it is not even really too difficult:
- Perhaps we have all looked in the wrong direction
  (e.g. wrong assumptions)

My guess it is somewhere between the last two.
But that is also something I don't really know.

Cheers, Rene


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