Re: VMs: No stats no fun ---> no stats no blinkers! :-)

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Dennis,

At 12:54 10/08/2003 -0500, Dennis wrote:
> > Rather, I'm proposing a connected set of hypotheses which (if true) would
> > explain why prior statistical analyses of current transcriptions may well
> > have been taking secondary structural artefacts (ie, those of a constructed
> > word-game designed to resemble language)
>
>         My idea, of course, is that it is some sort of a word
> game.  I don't
> think I've heard this from you before.  Would you
> elaborate for my dense mind?

Consider the following (badly designed) pair cipher:-

        a b c d e       =       ba be bi bo bu
        f g h i j               =       ca ce ci co cu
        k l m n o       =       da de di do du
        p q r s t               =       fa fe fi fo fu
        u v w x y       =       ga ge gi go gu
        z & . , !               =       ha he hi ho hu

-->     "Dennis"        =       "bobudodocofo"

Whichever way you tried to analyse the individual letters in 
"bobudodocofo", you would get essentially nowhere, no matter how long the 
ciphertext happened to be. Similarly, letter adjacency statistics would 
give you little help (KOKO, anyone?). You would be left with a feeling that 
you were looking at a constructed word-game that might (or might not) be 
some form of repetitive language.

Here's where I suspect we are with the VMS - all our stats are at the 
"b.o.b.u.d.o.d.o.c.o.f.o" context, but until such time as we can read it as 
"bo.bu.do.do.co.fo", we'll remain stuck.

Note that I don't think this alone will be sufficient for us to read the 
VMS - but it should be a gigantic leap forward in the right direction. I 
predict there will be further levels of word-game to trip us up along the 
way, our author is far too smart to make life easy for us!

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....

PS: you might also consider the following: the choice of letters in the 
VMS' alphabet indicates that the author was familiar with multiple European 
languages, shorthand, embellished letters (probably from reading legal 
documents?), and possibly even Cistercian numbering systems (as described 
in David A. King's "The Cipher of the Monks"). His intention may have been 
to throw as many red herrings in the air as possible - but they also signal 
his influences.

However, if he had designed a very much more geometric alphabet (say, 
consisting purely of boxes), we would have had next to nothing to go on. 
It's possible, then, that his explicit intention was indeed for this to be 
treated as a word-game / word-puzzle and decoded! :-) 


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