Re: VMs: Criteria for a successful solution

[Koontz John E <John.Koontz@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 16 Aug 2004, Rene Zandbergen wrote:
> They used to be listed on Gabriel's web site (currently not available),
> ....

I've noticed this.  It creates an odd hollow sound in all the other
Voynich webs.  It's like having a hole in the middle of the living room
floor.

> I am convinced that a susccessful solution will not need a lot of proof
> or analysis - a correct solution should be recognisable easily.

Ditto.

> 1. There should be a clearly described procedure how the MS text was
>    generated, which could have been performed by someone from the
>    proposed time of origin, and is reproducible.
>
> 1a. It should work for the whole Ms, not just a small part.
>
> 1b. It should work for the labels, and translate to meaningful label
>     words.

I suppose this would be modulo different parts of the document being in
significantly different encryptions.  For example, I think if a solution
worked in a way that was clearly satisfactory as far as method and sense
for the first five pages and then stopped, no one would quibble that it a
partial solution for those pages.  Or if it worked for A material, but not
B, etc.  Granted the material seems homogeneous enough that this seems
unlikely.  Clearly this requirement is to handle solutions for particular
pages that are not clearly held to be satisfactory by others, e.g., that
of Strong.

In regard to partial solutions, it seems likely that once a partial
solution is found it should be possible to parlay this into a solution for
all of the manuscript, even if there were some differences among the
family of solutions required, but this might not be an immediate process.
For example, Ventris's solution for Linear B is accepted, but the similar
Linear A texts remain unreadable.  This is a disappointment, but not
regarded as a fatal flaw in his solution.

In the case of the VMs, one could imagine that it might turn out that
large segments were intended to represent untranslated or translated
renditions of the speech of, say, angels or daemons.

As far as labels being words there is always some possibility with labels
that some of them are simply cross referencing codes, e.g., emc1999a or
VMsf116r or xviii-a.1.

> 2. The 'odd features' of the MS text, as first pointed out by Currier,
> and extended in the mean time by later analysis, should be explained by
> the solution. In particular, it should be clear how or why the word
> patters from the core-mantle-crust or prefix-midfix-suffix paradigms
> arise.

I could imagine an explanation for this being discovered without a
solution, with sub heads for cases of the text being thought to be
gibberish, or the text being natural language or some variation on it.  In
the case of a gibberish text, this might be the only kind of solution
possible.

> 3. The 'encryption method', when applied to other normal texts of the
> proposed time period and language, should generate Voynich-like
> properties.

To take into account the gibberish hypothesis, one might want to say
something like "The generative process, when applied to appropriate input,
should produce text with Voynich-like process."

> 4. The solution should be chronologically sound.

I suppose this means, the content should be appropriate to the context of
the author?  It might be safer to think in terms of non-gibberish text
being somehow sensible or coherent.  This would include the possibility of
the text being a forgery, with content appropriate to the period of its
ostensible origin, but reflecting misconceptions about that period held by
its preparers.  It would also adapt to something such as a text which
turned out to be a list of random, but reasonable words, the analog
perhaps of an envelop full of strips of newspaper or pillows under the
bedclothes.

> I particularly like (3), which was proposed, if I am not much mistaken,
> by Bruce Grant. It means that in solving the mystery, one has to
> concentrate on the 'encryption' method rather than the 'decryption'
> method.

Well, it always help to work backward from the solution as well as forward
from the problem.

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