Re: VMs: Folio and Quire numbers

[Bruce Grant <bgrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nick Pelling wrote:

> I'd also agree that it is too (structurally) complicated for it to be 
> a *single* cipher from any era - but note that I posit it as a 
> carefully-constructed compilation of cipher techniques. Its structure 
> would therefore arise from the *combination* of elements within the 
> system, not from the innate algorithmic complexity of any single element. 

This type of argument can get you into trouble, I think. For example, I 
remember years ago running across a tract which attempted to show that 
the Bible must be divinely composed because of a large number of 
statistics about it which involve the number seven. For example (I'm 
making up a couple since I don't recall the ones in the tract), the 
number of words referring to plants was exactly divisible by seven, also 
the number of occurences of the word "and", the number of verses, and so 
on. Other things were divisible by 77 or 777. The author went on to 
argue that no human being could have composed a book in which all of 
these counts came out correct simultaneously as the last word was being 
written.

The flaw in the argument is that the autohor of the tract got to pick 
which statistics to use after the fact. Similarly, not knowing anything 
about the method of encryption, we don't know which features are 
siginificant, and therefore whether the structure is realy complex or not.

(At least, that's how it looks to me.)

Bruce


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