VMs: Re: VMs, RuggWatch

[Jacques Guy <jguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

21/07/2004 11:45:38 PM, Dennis <tsalagi@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Nick Pelling wrote:

>> Why did you think that immediately? Have there ever been any other 
>> unreadable manuscript hoaxes of a comparable size?

>	Maybe the Codex Seraphinianus in modern times (but it 
>may not be a hoax either!).

Its author, Luigi Serafini, swears that it is not glossolalia.
Then again, we have to distinguish between hoax and fantasy.
What is "War of the Worlds"? Hoax or fantasy? Or, for that
matter, what is "A Midsummer Night's Dream"?

No, the difference can only be in the intent. A hoax is
fantasy deliberately and knowingly presented as truth.
Therefore, in order to be a hoax, a text has to convey 
meaning. Glossolalia, grapholalia if you prefer, is 
something else again: it is meaningless.

Back to Rugg. The gist of his argument is that
using a Cardan grid you can generate text with the
same properties as the Voynich. Therefore, the
Voynich is a hoax. That does not follow at all.
Using an English dictionary and an English 
grammar, you can produce stuff with the same
properties as English. Therefore, anything
written in English is a hoax? Humbug.




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