Re: VMs: semiotics & vms: homepage

[Jacques Guy <jguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

10/09/2003 1:12:46 AM, "Gabriele Ferri" <gabriele.ferri@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:


>( http://digilander.libero.it/eicher/ )

Let me make a few comments.

1."Algorithm model": the VMs is encoded using a algorithm that could be more or less 
complex but doesn't require any active choice by the reader. In other words, this 
hypotesis is true if, given the right algorithm and the right transcription, the
VMs could be automatically decoded by a PC.

I believe this is true of any meaningful text, enciphered or not.

 
   2."Fill-in-the-gaps model": the decoding of the VMs, even if the right algorithm is 
found, needs a human intervention to be completed. The simplest example is a text with 
no vowels: the reader has to make arbitrary decisions concerning which vowel insert and 
where.

It is quite easy to right an algorithm that reinserts vowels (or anything
left out for that matter). Ambiguous cases can be resolved resorting to
other algorithms, similar to syntax checkers. In fact, modern speech 
recognition programs are perfect examples of such algorithms.
 
   3."Nonstandard language model": the VMs is written using an artificial language or is 
a phonetical transcription written using  ad hoc rules and conventions. These two 
examples may seem very different: what makes them similar is the fact that the
plain-text is not encrypted or cloaked but it is written in a language different from 
widely known ones. If this thesis is correct, trying to "decode" voynichese is just like 
trying to "decode" plain Italian. Therefore, if this thesis is correct, it would be more
correct to speak about "translation" of the VMs than "decoding" of the VMs.

Yes, strictly speaking. But think of the title of Michael Coe's book "Breaking the
Maya Code". So, loosely speaking....
 
   4."Glossolalia model": the VMs cannot be decrypted or translated because the text is 
random.

Rather, because it is meaningless.

It could also be possible that the author sincerely believed that what he was randomly 
writing had a meaning (i.e. he could think to be a prophet or a medium).

Like Enochian? That is borderline between true glossolalia and imaginary
languages (such as Helen Smith's Martian). Enochian possibly started
as glossolalia; soon Kelley saw patterns in his gibberish and steered it
into ... Enochian.




______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxx with a body saying:
unsubscribe vms-list