Re: VMs: Testing Dr. Rugg's hoax theory

[Jacques Guy <jguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

7/09/2004 9:43:09 AM, elvogt@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>
>To answer that I'd have to be able to decipher it.\

Which you have not done, nor has anyone of us,
nor is anyone every likely to, short of a tremendous
breakthrough in decipherment methods (wherein lies
the only interest of the Voynich Manuscript).

>If I understand correctly, you're saying that to be a hoax, it must 
>contain "meaningful content", ie some statements which the author knows not be 
>true.

Yes.

>According to this definition, even if the VM was composed with the method 
>proposed by Rugg, it couldn't qualify as a hoax, because there obviously would 
>be no content.

Unless it was presented as meaningful. "Hoax" is in the
author's intent.

>It doesn't address the possibility, that the VM was created this 
>way though.

No indeed. That is irrelevant, totally irrelevant.

>I took a broader approach, considering everything a hoax "which is, on purpose, 
>made to look like it had contents which it has not" -- a deception, a trick, a 
>swindle. In that case the VM would qualify (assuming the Rugg approach) for a 
>hoax.

When I was a teenager, I toyed with the idea of creating my own hoax.
Texts in Proto-Indo-European written in a Maya-looking alphabet.
What held me back was:

1. What medium? 
2. Where to plant my forgeries.

For (1) I had decided on slate.
As for (2), that is what convinced me to put it into 
the "too hard" basket.

>*) What would you consider proof of the hypothesis that the VM does contain no 
>meaningful content?

Difficult.  I have, I should think, given enough examples of
what may look to you like gibberish, and yet is not. Like,
just now, my Indonesian bit about how many fucking bloody
books (buku-buku) were cluttering every room (kamar-kamar) of
my house (rumahku), everywhere (di mana-mana).

>*) How could one prove the validity of Rugg's approach?

How could one prove that the moon is made of green cheese?



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