Re: VMs: semiotics & vms: homepage

["Gabriele Ferri" <gabriele.ferri@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi there and thanks for your feedback :-)

-----Messaggio originale-----
Da: Jacques Guy <jguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
A: vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx <vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Data: mercoledì 10 settembre 2003 4.01
Oggetto: Re: VMs: semiotics & vms: homepage


>>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.

Actually, I don't understand what you're saying. An example for this model
is the "Morse code", where there's a strict biunivocal correlation between
"letters" and "impulses". If you input a plain text in a PC, it's really
easy for the machine to convert it in morse code and viceversa.

>>   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.

Correct. Good point. :-)

>>   3."Nonstandard language model" ...
<SNIP>
>Yes, strictly speaking. But think of the title of Michael Coe's >book
>"Breaking the Maya Code". So, loosely speaking....

:-) Ok, but one of my main problems is terminology. Semiotic has a fairly
complex "jargon", containing terms from linguistics, analitical
philosophy... So in semiotic jargon there are many fundamental differences
between "to translate" and "to decode" (for example, in the last 10 years
the concept of "code" itself has been widely criticized and Eco proposed to
replace it with the concept of "encyclopedia").
Anyway, now I understand I need to write and upload a small glossary. Good
feedback!

>>   4."Glossolalia model": the VMs cannot be decrypted or >>translated
because the text is
>>random.
>Rather, because it is meaningless.

See above, there's a big difference between random and meaningless. One of
the "Golden Rules" of communication is that "it's impossible not to
communicate". Even a book containing absolutely random text has many
meanings (for a semiotic point of view): its images, the layout...

>>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?
<SNIP>

Exactly! :-)

cheers
Gabriele


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